Securities Lawyers Blog
The investment attorneys with Gana Weinstein LLP are investigating and representing investors who were inappropriately recommended oil and gas and commodities related investments. Investors may have potential legal remedies due to unsuitable recommendations by their broker to invest in this speculative and volatile area. Several royalty trusts linked to SandRidge Energy have suffered substantial declines. SandRidge Permian Trust (Stock Symbol: PER) has lost 81% in value over the last two years, SandRidge Mississippian Trust I (NYSE: SDT) lost 68% over the last two years, and SandRidge Mississippian Trust II (NYSE: SDR) lost 81% over the last two years.
SandRidge Energy, Inc. is an oil and natural gas company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that focuses on exploration and production. SandRidge and its subsidiaries also own and operate gas gathering and processing facilities, saltwater disposal and electrical infrastructure facilities and conduct marketing operations.
Sandridge Energy (SDOC) fell to the bottom of Standard & Poor’s credit ladder with a D rating after deferring interest payments. Sandridge is unlikely to make good on its $22 million interest payment that was due and many believe that SandRidge’s $4 billion debt load is unsustainable in the face of a $681 million loss over the last four reported quarters.
Oil and gas royalty trusts, like master limited partnerships (MLPs), invest in the energy and commodities sector. However, unlike MLPs, royalty trusts generate income from the actual production of natural resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas and therefore the cash flows from royalty trusts are subject to swings in commodity prices and production levels causing them to be very inconsistent. Royalty trusts have no physical operations, no management, and no employees. Instead, royalty trusts are merely financing vehicles run by banks that trade like stocks. Another company actually mine the resources and pay the royalties to the trust.
Royalty trusts may be recommended to some investors because of the high yields offered. However, yield alone does not make the investment suitable for most investors. Investors need to know that royalty trusts are very close to pure bets on commodity prices. The value of the trust and its distributions are almost directly correlated to the prices of the underlying commodity, an unstable investment whose value cannot be accurately forecasted. In addition, royalty trusts own royalties only on a finite amount of resources and once the commodity is used up the distributions will fall and eventually reach zero rendering the investment worthless.
Our clients tell us similar stories that their advisors hyped oil and gas and commodities high yielding investments without significant discussion of risk. In a recent Associated Press article, common stories of how investors are pitched by their financial advisors on oil and gas investments were reported on. Often times these products are pitched as ways to ride the boom in U.S. oil and gas production and receive steady streams of income.
Our firm represents securities investors in claims against brokerage firms over sales practices related to the recommendations of oil & gas and commodities products such as exchange traded notes (ETNs), structured notes, private placements, MLPs, leveraged ETFs, mutual funds, and individual stocks. Investors who have suffered losses may be able recover their losses through securities arbitration. Our consultations are free of charge and the firm is only compensated if you recover.