Texas Pacific Land Trust Settles Summerlong Battle With Dissatisfied Investors

Texas Pacific Land Trust, one of the state's largest landowners with about 900,000 acres, will explore converting into a corporation as part of a settlement with an investor group it's been battling for months.The Dallas-based trust has been locked in litigation for months with some of its biggest shareholders after a resignation triggered a rare vacancy on the trust’s three-person board of directors. The investor group is led by Horizon Kinetics LLC, SoftVest LP, and ART-FGT Family Partners. Together, they control over 25% of the trust's shares, with Horizon holding 23%. All pending litigation is being dropped, according to a statement Wednesday from the trust. The vacant seat will remain open until an exploratory committee completes its recommendation on whether the trust will become a C-corporation. Three members of the dissident investors will join four others on that committee. They are Horizon Kinetics chairman Murray Stahl, SoftVest president Eric Oliver and Hodges Capital CEO Craig Hodges, another of the trust's large shareholders. “We are pleased to have come to an amicable resolution,” Trustee John Norris said in a statement. “It is now time for all of us to come together, put aside our differences, and determine the best way forward for the trust and all of its shareholders.”  Continue reading...