Reuters: Global Markets: SandRidge investor seeks possible sale, CEO removal

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SandRidge investor seeks possible sale, CEO removal Nov 8th 2012, 15:29 Thu Nov 8, 2012 10:29am EST (Reuters) - One of SandRidge Energy Inc's (SD.N) top shareholders called for the oil and gas company to consider selling itself and for Chief Executive Tom Ward to step down, saying management's strategy has been "incoherent, unpredictable and volatile." Investor TPG-Axon, which said it owns more than 4.5 percent of SandRidge, on Thursday sent the company a letter that also calls for SandRidge's board to be significantly reconfigured. TPG-Axon said in the letter it believes SandRidge could be worth $12 to $14 per share, compared with its $6-a-share closing price on Wednesday. SandRidge shares were up 7.5 percent at $6.45 on Thursday morning after the letter was released. The company's current market value is around $3.2 billion. "SandRidge stock performance has been nothing short of disastrous, on both an absolute and relative basis, since the company's IPO in 2007," TPG-Axon founder Dinakar Singh wrote in a letter to the SandRidge board. The shares have lost around three-quarters of their value from their IPO price of $26. The Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based company focuses on exploration and production primarily in the Permian Basin and the Mid-Continent region of the United States, including northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas. It also has operations in West Texas, the Gulf Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Ward, who had previously co-founded Chesapeake Energy Corp (CHK.N) with Aubrey McClendon, joined the company in 2006 and took it public the following year. Singh wrote that even considering the financial crisis and the collapse of natural gas prices, "many of the (company's) wounds have been self-inflicted." He pointed to what he called appalling corporate governance and reckless spending that "has resulted in repeated financial emergencies, and caused massive dilution, soaring cost of capital, and unnecessary risks for shareholders." SandRidge could not immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting by Michael Erman in New York; editing by Maureen Bavdek, Gerald E. McCormick and Matthew Lewis) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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