Meeting – Live Blog

tpltblogger15 Comments

7 people in room. Norris, Dobbs, Glover, Steddum, among folks in room

2:00 – Norris opens meeting

2:01 – Glover speaks. Says questions can be submitted via Q&A portal or annualmeetingtpl@texaspacific.com

2:02 – Introduces directors

2:04 – official business starts

2:06 – Gliksberg is asked to present #7. Screen goes blank. Audio cuts off.

2:08 – Sounds like it is an audio clip. Tried again. Still not working.

2:09 – Dobbs says polls close at 2:30. Vote via web portal.

2:09 – Trying Gliksberg audio again. No dice.

2:11 – Silence

2:11 – Gliksberg audio finally plays. No video.

2:14 – Dobbs says polls are open until 2:30 and we’ll hear about the results via 8K in 4 biz days

2:15 – Glover reads history of the company. Reports that company was useless shithole prior to his active management.

2:20 – Meeting attendees in virtual chat say that voting is closed. Many not able to vote.

2:24 – Glover still chatting. Meeting attendee chat is not happy.

2:27 – Glover says they are going to try to use cash to grow. If there is some left, it will be returned to shareholders. They don’t appear to care about your capital policy preferences.

2:28 – Dobbs says voting will be extended until 3pm Central. Pause until then.

Question while we wait – If you own very little of a company but are charged with making capital allocation decisions for said company, what types of incentives and motivations would influence those decisions? How would you want to be compensated for your efforts?

2:51 – Dobbs comes in and says polls will be extended until 3:30 Central time. Leaves extra time to leaf through a favorite. https://www.amazon.com/Their-Finest-Riverside-Cambridge-Second/dp/B00FO67K4Y

3:11 – Meeting attendee chat disabled. Management tired of getting roasted.

3:12 – Aaaannnnd we’re back! Dobbs says polls will be open until 3:30 and asks for questions via the portal.

3:13 – Back to hold music

Question while we wait – On a scale from 1 to 10, how uncomfortable are the new independent board members right now?

3:29 – chat was opened back up for a while. closed again.

3:30 – Dobbs back. Says polls are closed.

3:30 – John Norris adjourns meeting

3:30 – Q&A starts without video.

3:31 – Question – Why is board classified. Answer – Refer to materials we already disclosed

3:33 – John Norris – Board conducted inquiry into McGinnis shares. Says he and clients blocked up got him to 2nd largest status. Board satisfied w/ that and doesn’t want to spend more time on it.

3:37 – 90 FTE. 1/3 of which are water biz dedicated.

3:38 – Capital allocation is driven by “active management” philosophy. Read between the lines – the old way is gone.

3:40 – “We don’t control mail”. Sorry you couldn’t vote.

3:42 – Breaking to see if there are more questions

3:46 – “We got a question on repurchases”. Then doesn’t answer it. “Yeah, we talk about it quarterly.”

3:47 – TPL owns a turbo prop plane. Helps w/ getting employees around and managing assets

3:48 – Q&A over

15 thoughts on “Meeting – Live Blog”

  7. Someone should post the TPLTblog.com link in the chat room so that other shareholders can coalesce around this site in the future as I’m sure there may need to be future shareholder discussions about how to deal with management

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    • Given how many shares Murray owns, how is he NOT aligned? You think he cares about a few hundred grand in directors fees when he has several billion in AUM at HK and owns 20% of TPL?

      I get the impression he isn’t experienced in activist campaigns and made a play with the conversion settlement, and miscalculated how bad things would be after that and now his hands are tied being on the board. He’d be better off leaving the board and teaming up with another activist (Elliott? Somebody sharp-elbowed like that) and really taking a weedwhacker to the entrenched board/management.

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      • He can be aligned with you with money but not the direction and plan to get there. For all the frustration of minority shareholders, have we seen EO and MS affect any positive change?

        There’s more than one way to skin a cat and if you think that the current activists are skinning the cat in a way you agree with, why are so many shareholders still upset?

        I mean really. How many times have activists gone in on companies where families mismanage and own a ton of stock? Don’t tell me that owning a ton of stock means you always make it go up or do the right thing. That just isn’t true.

        The facts are that very little has changed since this activist move and it sure seems to be just fine with the activists.

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        • I think Murray is more patient than many of us may be and he also has a much longer lens. Perhaps you’ve owned and advocated about TPL since the 90s – I wish I knew you then if so. That’s not a jab…I really wish I knew about TPL in the 90s! But we know Murray has. We also know he’s not an activist by nature or business plan. That said there are real public co/securities issues that any company, well or poorly intentioned would have to deal with and anyone in HK/Oliver’s position is bound by. I think Tyler in particular did a poor job of meeting the moment yesterday as every question was knowable (except the Dana issue) for at least the last twelve months. Murray cannot be a true “activist” at this point because he is now an insider. This is the cost of having him on the board, though I think it is worth it. Not voting his considerable ownership for Dana was a principled move that gives me confidence. As a longtime fund manager Murray really understands how the reporting really works so I take that as a strong rebuke. It seems very likely Dana won’t be there long term…if he is self aware at all he’ll resign to eliminate what’s become a considerable distraction. There’s no chance that Murray is in the bag for someone pushing to do un-economic things; he’s one of the most perfectly rational investors I’ve ever seen..

          I think we’d all be well served to be patient as well and not bog this small, possibly incompetent team, with a bunch of existential noise. No doubt they heard the messages yesterday, hopefully the vote will show this is a group of substantial (in size) concerned shareholders and not an insubstantial group of Karen’s bitching when they are up 80% over the last twelve months and 300%+ over the last 5 and even better as you go back further. The worst case scenario in my opinion as a small potatoes owner of +/- 300 shares direct (and more indirect through Horizon), is that this business gets sold…for a “huge premium” that doesn’t reflect the true long term opportunity of participating in this business that the public market affords.

          They went through an arduous legal battle, we got a lot of what we wanted, I think we’ll get more. In the meantime, the business isn’t broken and many of the board and mgmt have demonstrated continued agency conflict and big owners are in and watching. I’m optimistic 2022 will be better than ’20 and ’21. The table is set better today as relates to this groups concerns (self included) than ever.

          Happy new year to you all!

          Liked by 1 person

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