Though both IEP’s short and long positions lost money in the second quarter, he said the company appeared to turn a corner in July, when the value of its stock investments had a net increase of $500 million.Īnd his famous sense of humor is undiminished. Icahn appears upbeat about IEP’s future, touting that an investor who’d bought shares in 2000 and reinvested dividends would have averaged a 13% annual return through July. (In trademark Icahn fashion, he also spent much of the letter berating public company CEOs and boards, comparing them to feudalistic rulers and their advisers to mercenaries.)

He said he had strayed from the style of investing that made him famous in favor of a bet against the market that backfired, and vowed to refocus on activism.

Icahn, who has called Hindenburg’s report “misleading and self-serving,' issued a rare mea culpa in a letter accompanying the results. IEP shares regained some ground in July after Icahn restructured personal loans that had been tied to the stock price, but they sank further after IEP reported disappointing second-quarter earnings earlier this month and cut its dividend in half.

His colorful public statements and brash negotiating style helped shape a new era of shareholder activism, and he looms large in the New York area, where a stadium, hospital buidings and charter schools all bear his name. Icahn rose to fame as a scrappy corporate raider in the 1980s and went on to make billions by pressuring companies including Apple to make changes to boost their stocks. That has erased roughly half of Icahn’s personal fortune, bringing it to around $8.5 billion, Forbes estimates, based on his ownership of roughly 85% of IEP’s shares, and damaged his reputation as one of the most feared activists.

State of survival codes august 2020