Kerrisdale Capital Management issues letter to management, board members and other stakeholders of Lindsay Corporation
NEW YORK, Dec. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Kerrisdale Capital Management issued the following letter on Monday, December 23rd to management, board members and other stakeholders of Lindsay Corporation (NYSE: LNN):
Dear Mr. Parod, Mr. Christodolou, other Members of the Lindsay Board and Stakeholders of Lindsay Corporation,
On October 25th, 2013, we issued a letter ("October 25th Letter") to the executive officers and members of the Board of Directors ("Board") of Lindsay Corporation ("Lindsay") with a variety of thoughts on how management and the Board could continue to create shareholder value for the equity owners of Lindsay.
In response to our letter, Mr. Parod and Lindsay's executive team engaged in a dialogue with us about our ideas and concerns. Through face-to-face discussions as well as communications by email and over the phone, we further discussed ways in which the Board and management can continue to maximize the value that accrues to long-term shareholders.
In particular, we discussed in our October 25th Letter that the company's cash balance now exceeds 15% of the company's market capitalization and given that this cash earns a negligible return on equity, we urged management to consider employing that cash in a more productive manner.
Through subsequent discussions with management, we believe that the Board and executive team understand our concerns and are undertaking an exhaustive review on the best course of action with respect to capital allocation. We believe that management has solicited the opinions of other shareholders, as well as investment bankers and sell-side analysts, and recognizes that re-investing the company's hard-earned cash in a more productive manner is in the interests of all stakeholders. We're optimistic that the Board is deliberating carefully on how to optimize its cash deployment, and that our concerns, which we believe are shared by other shareholders, are being recognized and in due course will be responded to.
Furthermore, in our October 25th Letter, we also discussed that the Board should consider shareholder-nominated directors to provide independent views to Board deliberations. Subsequent to our letter, we suggested three prospective candidates who we believed could add value to the Lindsay Board. Mr. Parod, other members of the executive team, and representatives of the Board scheduled discussions with our candidates, which included face-to-face meetings in Omaha. Based on our discussions with the Lindsay team as well as our suggested candidates, we believe that the meetings have been constructive.
In the aggregate, we have found the Lindsay management to be responsive to our shareholder concerns and the Lindsay Board to be proactive in seeking to maximize shareholder value.
Given our ongoing dialogue with management, we don't think it's appropriate to nominate alternate director candidates during the January 2014 proxy election. We believe that the current Board is seriously considering ways to address Lindsay's underutilized cash balance and continues to consider adding shareholder-nominated representatives to the extent that it would facilitate improved corporate governance, management oversight and shareholder value creation.
We look forward to a continued dialogue with management to maximize long-term returns for all equity holders.
Sincerely,
Sahm Adrangi
Chief Investment Officer
Kerrisdale Capital Management, LLC
About Kerrisdale Capital Management, LLC
Kerrisdale Capital Management, LLC is a fundamentally-oriented investment manager that focuses on long-term value investments and event-driven special situations. Kerrisdale has approximately $300 million in assets under management and is based out of New York City.
For further information please contact:
Sahm Adrangi
Chief Investment Officer
Kerrisdale Capital Management, LLC
1212 Avenue of the Americas, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10036
Telephone: 212.792.9148
SOURCE Kerrisdale Capital Management, LLC
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