An iconic Texas landowner with origins as the developer of an uncompleted transcontinental railroad has reorganized as a Delaware corporation, according to a Jan. 11 announcement.
Texas Pacific Land Trust, which owns about 880,000 acres of land in West Texas and has a market cap of $6.2 billion based on revenue, said the move “is more aligned with the expectations of today’s investors,” who favor cash returns over growth.
“We expect that our enhanced governance framework, in step with practices of publicly traded peer corporations, will foster value creation over time and benefit our stockholders,” said board co-chair John Norris.
Texas Pacific Land Trust, which was founded in 1871 and is now one of the largest landowners in Texas, called on Sidley Austin to complete the reorganization.
The transaction was led from New York by partners Kai H.E. Liekefett (who splits his time between New York and Houston) and Holly J. Gregory, but it involved 16 other lawyers from Texas.
From Houston, the team included partners George Vlahakos and Angela Richards, and associates Leonard Wood, John Stribling, Blake Longoria, Tanner Groce, Ashley Moulder, Kaitlin Schock, Femi Aborisade, and Sabina Wahl.
A number of lawyers from the firm’s Dallas office also worked on the deal, including partners Marc Rose, Yvette Ostolaza, and Yolanda Garcia. Associates Katie Legband, Dan Driscoll, and Jackson Long also worked on the reorganization.
The move comes more than a year after the trust settled a proxy fight with activist investors concerned about corporate governance. The trust agreed to add three members from the activist investor group to its conversion exploration committee. Ostolaza led negotiations for TPL at the time.
The reorganization, which was completed on Monday, called for the Trust to transfer all of its assets, employees, liabilities and obligations to the new entity, TPL Corporation. Investors’ holdings in the trust have also been converted to holdings in the new company.