Wintergreen Advisers pleased that Consolidated-Tomoka has hired Deutsche Bank to pursue the directive of Wintergreen’s Proxy Proposal
New York, NY – (Business Wire) – Wintergreen Advisers, LLC (“Wintergreen”) is pleased that Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. (NYSE: CTO, “CTO”) has hired Deutsche Bank to pursue the directive of Wintergreen’s Proxy Proposal: to explore strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value, including the possible liquidation of assets or the sale of the company. We believe CTO is trading at a massive discount to the value of its underlying assets and that a liquidation or substantial asset sale is in the best interests of the CTO shareholders.
We believe it is time to expedite and finalize any sales process while interest rates remain low and the ongoing real estate market recovery remains strong. We think prior and current CTO management has failed to enhance shareholder value beyond a slight reflection of the recovery of the real estate market and CTO needs strong, experienced outside advisers to point the company in a proper direction for the benefit of all shareholders.
At this point we cannot tell precisely what instructions have been given to Deutsche Bank as investment banker adviser, nor can we know how vigorously it will be permitted by CTO’s Board of Directors to explore all meaningful strategic paths for maximizing shareholder value through the sales process. We would welcome CTO’s support of Wintergreen’s Proposal on CTO’s forthcoming proxy statement.
We note that CTO also announced that its review of company activities and disclosures, conducted by CTO’s Audit Committee, had not uncovered any violations of securities laws. We question this finding and reiterate that we believe CTO management has violated both the letter and the spirit of multiple laws.
