The Morning Brief: Sandridge Complies With Judge; Lampert Sheds Sears Shares; Gold Losing Some Luster

Score one for TPG-Axon. In response to a recent court ruling, SandRidge Energy said it will include the director candidates proposed byTPG-Axon in its proxy, the company said in a Tuesday filing. Sandridge said it is doing this “for the limited purpose” of averting certain change of control provisions of its Indentures governing the company’s senior notes. “The Board continues to oppose the election of the director candidates proposed by the TPG-Axon group, believes their election is not in the best interest of the company’s stockholders, and recommends that stockholders support the company’s existing experienced board of directors,” the filing said. Sandridge initially believed that under each of the Indentures, it would be deemed a change of control if a majority of the board members changed over a two-year period. However, Chancellor Leo Strine in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware on March 6 rejected the board’s reasons for holding back its decision on whether to approve TPG-Axon’s director candidates based on the change of control provisions of the company’s Indentures.
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Edward Lampert’s ESL Partners sold more shares in Sears Holdings. This time it unloaded nearly 1.24 million shares, according to a regulatory filing. This reduces its total stake, including Lampert’s personal holdings in the discounter, to just under 58.9 million shares, or 55.3 percent of the total outstanding, down from 56.5 percent a week ago.
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Bad news for gold. BankofAmerica Merrill Lynch commodity strategists recently lowered their 2013 and 2014 average gold price forecasts to $1,680 per ounce and $1,838 per ounce, respectively. They also do not expect gold to hit the magic $2,000 per ounce target until 2014. “Our supply and demand models suggest that investors would have needed to purchase record amounts of gold to sustain the rally in recent quarters,” the report said.
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Man Group expects funds of fund to rebound in 2012. Keith Haydon, the chief investment officer of Man’s financial risk management unit said he is anticipating the best returns from its multistrategy funds of funds since 2009. He is looking for returns of 8.5 percent for the strategy this year, he told Bloomberg. In July Man acquired FRM, which manages $16 billion in funds-of-funds.