Superinvestors Spar in the Oil Sector
Some investors buy stocks and then sit back and wait for them to go up. Not Carl Icahn! Every investment he makes is so huge that it gives him meaningful business ownership, the power to say what’s what and reshuffle insiders. His job is to make companies more short-term shareholder-friendly, or in other words, more Icahn-friendly!
He took a gamble last week. He plucked Occidental Petroleum from the market’s ‘biggest fallers’ list and raised his existing stake by 10%. That, amid a Kremlin-orchestrated campaign to kill the company. Low oil prices are making life hell for big American shale, and 57% more of the Invstr community is short Occidental than even Chevron or Exxon. Brave bet!
Icahn is confident Oxy can ride out the storm, but not without him stating what’s what first. The activist is locked in a war of words with the company’s CEO, Vicki Hollub. She “ran to Omaha” to give none other than Warren Buffett “a free gift of $1.5 billion” last year. The conditions? That he loan her the money to buy Anadarko in “one of the worst deals ever,” according to the corporate raider.
Icahn fans are now loading up on shares as rumours swirl that he’s about to put his foot down and do something good here for investors. A new deal is in the works that puts three of his own men in charge. It could be announced today!
Hollub keeps her job, for now, but the goal of Occidental Petroleum has changed. Icahn wants to restore 91-billion-dollars of market value she’s alleged to have destroyed. That means septupling the share price in opposition to efforts in Moscow and during a very unique bear market. Stand back!