Uniti Group Inc. (UNIT) Accused of Misleading Shareholders
According to the complaint for alleged violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 between April 20, 2015 and June 24, 2019, in March 2015 Uniti spun off from Windstream Holdings, Inc., with Windstream selling assets to Uniti Group Inc. (UNIT) and Uniti leasing those assets back to Windstream. However, when Uniti began publicly trading in April 2015, the Company failed to disclose in its information statement that the sale-leaseback transaction between it and Windstream was highly risky and violated restrictive covenants within the indenture governing the sale of Windstream notes. Then, on October 12, 2017, U.S. Bank, as Trustee, filed the indenture litigation alleging the 2015 Uniti Spin-Off and sale-leaseback transaction violated Windstream’s indenture. As a result, on February 15, 2019, United States District Judge Jesse M. Furman ruled that the Uniti spin-off and sale-leaseback transaction breached the indenture and awarded the Trustees and Aurelius Capital Master, Ltd. a monetary judgment of over $300 million. On this news, Uniti’s share price fell $10.75, or almost 54%, over the course of the next three trading days to close at $9.23. The stock has yet to recover and currently trades at around $8.00.
