By Martinne Geller
Dec 24 (Reuters) - Hedge fund TPG-Axon Capital moved ahead
with its effort to oust the board of U.S. oil and gas company
SandRidge Energy Inc, saying it would file consent solicitation
documents with U.S. regulators on Monday.
TPG-Axon, which owns 6.7 percent of SandRidge, said in its
third letter to the company's board, dated Dec. 24, that it is
giving shareholders a chance to "terminate your reign of value
destruction". It first revealed its plan last month.
TPG-Axon also said it had filed a lawsuit contesting the
validity of Dec. 19 as the initial consent date for its
proposals, as set by SandRidge in a securities filing on Dec.
21. SandRidge said then that it had received written consents
related to the fund's proposals on Dec. 19, so that would be the
date from which shareholders would have 60 days to vote.
But TPG-Axon said on Monday that was impossible, since it
had not yet even requested the consent solicitation documents.
The fund said the action was an attempt by management to shorten
the time shareholders have to vote.
TPG-Axon also noted that in past weeks, SandRidge amended
its bylaws to make voting conditions more difficult for
shareholders, put a poison pill in place and issued an
additional $37 million of shares to senior management.
"Rather than attempt to reform, management and the board
seem intent on various tricks and artifice in an attempt to
gather advantage and confuse the process," TPG-Axon said in the
letter.
A SandRidge spokesman was not immediately available for
comment.
TPG-Axon said that after its consent solicitation is mailed
to shareholders in early January, stockholders of record as of
Dec. 13 will have up to 60 days to submit consent for TPG-Axon's
proposals.
TPG-Axon and another large shareholder, Mount Kellett
Capital, have been pressing SandRidge to replace its board and
chief executive and for an outright sale of the company.
SandRidge last week struck a deal to sell its Permian Basin
properties in west Texas for $2.6 billion.
SandRidge shares closed down 1 cent at $6.25 on the New York
Stock Exchange.
(Additional reporting by Krishna N. Das)
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