Elk Petroleum Accused of Breaching Offer to Money Manager

Elk Petroleum Inc. and its top executives were hit with a lawsuit May 20 accusing them of backing out on an offer to let ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC trade in its preferred stock to become a creditor of a subsidiary.

EPI made the offer in an Australian regulatory filing by its corporate parent, Elk Petroleum Ltd., but ultimately let only two preferred stockholders—shell companies with which it’s affiliated—close the transaction, according to the complaint filed in the Delaware Chancery Court.

The oil company “eventually become wholly unresponsive” to outreach efforts by ACR, then began denying May 13 that it ...