Icahn is said likely to have won control of SandRidge board

Icahn is expected to have won a majority of the seven board seats at the Oklahoma-based explorer, said the people, who asked not to be identified because results hadn’t been officially released. Final votes were still being counted on Tuesday morning, and the ultimate result wasn’t yet certain, one of the people said.

SandRidge’s top shareholder has been pushing since November for changes at the company, which has seen its stock plummet more than 40% since a 2016 bankruptcy. Under pressure from Icahn in recent months, SandRidge has canceled the acquisition of a rival driller, dismissed top executives and announced it’s open to a partial or full sale of the company.

The producer expanded its board from five to seven members earlier this year and offered to seat two Icahn nominees as a compromise. Icahn rejected the idea, saying the entire board needs to be replaced.

Icahn’s also raised the possibility of buying the company himself. SandRidge said in April that it would review offers from Icahn or other potential buyers while weighing its options. The company said last week that it’s been in contact with at least 17 possible bidders, including the activist.

SandRidge has drilling rights on more than a half-million acres across Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. But many of its fields are either aging properties saddled with declining production and higher costs, or lacking pipeline access that would make new drilling viable, according to David Beard, an analyst with New Orleans investment manager Coker & Palmer Inc.

The company’s market value topped $11 billion in 2008, when oil prices soared near $150/bbl. But a heavy debt load and the plunge in oil prices starting in 2014 eventually forced it into bankruptcy. It ended last week with a market value of about $550 million.

The proxy fight has gotten nasty over the last month, with an almost daily flurry of news releases and open letters to shareholders in which the New York billionaire and the Great Plains explorer excoriated one another. SandRidge blasted Icahn for “half-truths and hyperbole” and a “simply terrible” track record. Meanwhile, Icahn bemoaned a “litany of missteps and blatant transgressions” by directors and “egregious” pay packages.

Two shareholder advisory firms -- Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co. -- recommended splitting the difference in reports earlier this month. They urged shareholders to elect four SandRidge nominees and three of Icahn’s selections, although they differed on which ones. SandRidge used a so-called universal proxy card that allowed investors to pick and choose from both the company’s and Icahn’s slates.