Oklahoma City-based SandRidge Energy is responding in its public battle with investor Carl Icahn, calling some of his criticisms of its recent acquisition of a Colorado energy company “inflammatory.”
In a filing made Monday, Dec. 11 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SandRidge Senior Vice President and General Counsel Philip T. Warman laid out responses to Icahn’s recent demands over the company purchase of Bonanza Creek Energy based in Denver.
The firm informed Icahn in a Dec. 8 letter that his opposition to the proposed acquisition would not trigger a Rights Plan drawn up by the SandRidge Board of Directors. He was told he had the right to seek proxies from other stockholders to vote against the proposed acquisition and could indeed contact them.
As to Icahn’s demand to inspect the books and records of SandRidge, the general counsel informed him he was not entitled under Delaware law to inspect the requested books and records; however, “the Company would volunteer to make certain documents available to Mr. Icahn subject to a mutually agreeable confidentiality agreement.
In the letter to Icahn, SandRidge responded to some of his allegations by stating, “The Icahn Parties have provided no credible basis to suggest that the Plan would fail to meet such a standard, acerbic labels do no suffice.”
The letter called Icahn’s accusations about compensation “nothing more than conclusory allegations that senior management has been overcompensated and has received ‘princely sums. Such threadbare allegations are insufficient.”
