Brett Icahn to Rejoin His Father’s Firm
Carl Icahn’s son to lead new investment team and join Icahn Enterprises Board
Carl Icahn is finally ready to loosen the reins on his investment empire.
His son, Brett, is rejoining Icahn Enterprises IEP +0.87% LP, which he left in 2016, the firm said Thursday. He will manage a new team of portfolio managers, buy a $10 million stake in the firm and join its board as part of his 84-year-old father’s succession plan.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that the deal was in the works and reported Wednesday that such a deal was imminent.
The elder Mr. Icahn will for now remain in charge of the publicly traded firm, which hasn’t managed outside money for years and has a market value of roughly $11 billion. But the firm said it would adopt a plan for Brett Icahn to succeed his father as chairman and chief executive of its investment segment either in seven years or sooner at his father’s request.
Brett’s team will pitch ideas to Carl, who will have the final say and require Brett to invest a small amount of his own money into each investment. Rather than oversee a set amount of capital, the amount of money managed by Brett’s team will depend on their investment ideas.
The agreement was as extensively negotiated as some of Mr. Icahn’s activist campaigns. The two men spent roughly two years on-and-off hashing out details of Brett’s return, a process that moved slowly in part because the younger man didn’t see many opportunities in a strong market.
Brett Icahn, who is 41 and decidedly more reserved than his famous father, has already hired three portfolio managers to help him look for the firm’s next activist targets. He said in an interview last year that he plans to employ his father’s favored approach of pushing companies to make changes designed to boost their stock prices, though he hasn’t ruled out friendly bets too.
Brett previously spent nearly 15 years at Icahn Enterprises, beginning as a low-level analyst in 2002 and later overseeing the firm’s Sargon Portfolio, which at one time totaled around $7 billion and included profitable investments in companies such as Netflix Inc. and Apple Inc. Over those years the annualized return was a market-beating 27%. He stepped away for the past several years but remained a consultant.
Mr. Icahn has been laying low since moving to Florida from New York around a year ago. The billionaire hasn’t publicly taken a major new position since last year, though he is still known to spend late nights and weekends working. Since Covid-19 began spreading around the country in mid-March, he has mainly stayed at his beachfront estate on Miami’s exclusive Indian Creek island with his wife Gail, their dogs, and a small staff that brings him a nightly “quarantini” cocktail after tennis.
The pandemic altered Mr. Icahn’s plans for some investments and forced him to abandon others. As the coronavirus roiled markets and helped send oil prices tumbling in mid-March, Mr. Icahn bought an even larger piece of Occidental Petroleum Corp. and later that month hammered out a deal to get seats on the oil-and-gas producer’s board. The company, struggling with the untimely acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., slashed its dividend and its stock has continued to fall.
Gapping down
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
- NG -4.1%, FUN -2% (Q3 guidance)
Other news:
- ZSAN -53.7% (received discipline review letter for Qtrypta NDA)
- SELB -45.2% (announced top-line data from Phase 2 COMPARE trial)
- LOGC -23.9% (announced public offering of common stock)
- NNDM -12.6% (prices offering of 7,356,521 ADSs at $2.30 per ADS)
- TRTN -9.2% (announces the commencement of a public secondary offering of an aggregate of 10,706,982 common shares by Vestar Capital Partners LLC and certain affiliated funds)
- CLI -5.2% (suspends dividends for Q3 and Q4; lightly traded)
- IMXI -5.2% (prices secondary offering by selling stockholders of 4,925,000 shares of the Co's common stock at $13.50 per share)
- PAR -3.1% (prices offering of 3.35 mln shares of common stock at $38.00 per share)
- MDT -0.9% (under investigation in ventilator antitrust probe, according to WSJ)
- BEAM -0.9% (prices offering of 5 mln shares of common stock at $23.50 per share)
Analyst comments:
- VLO -1.1% (downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman)
Gapping up
In reaction to earnings/guidance:
- BBBY +16.8%, STM +6.5% (sees Q3 and FY20 revs above consensus) SNN +3.9% (Q3 guidance) CAG +2.5%, PEP +1.5%
Select airline stocks trading higher:
- JBLU +2.4%, JETS +2.2%, UAL +1.9%, AAL +1.9%, DAL +1.6%, LUV +1.5%, ALK +1.4%, .
Other news:
- SLDB +70.9% (FDA has lifted the clinical hold placed on the Company's IGNITE DMD Phase I/II clinical trial)
- ADES +66.3% (Cabot [CBT] announced long-term supply agreement with co)
- AMAG +42% (in talks to be acquired by Covis Pharma, per Bloomberg)
- SBH +7% (to join the S&P SmallCap 600)
- SAIL +6.6% (to join the S&P MidCap 400)
- PRVB +5.9% (announced submission of clinical module for teplizumab BLA)
- FLR +4.4% (awarded $1.1 bln Navy contract)
- KLDO +3.9% (announced that Daniel Menichella has been appointed President and CEO)
- PLTR +3.5% (continued volatility following public debut)
- AMC +3% (to reopen additional theaters in California and Michigan)
- RGEN +2.9% (announced their successful development of an affinity ligand targeting the spike protein, to be utilized in the purification of COVID-19 vaccines)
- KDMN +2.8% (submitted NDA for belumosudil for the treatment of patients with cGVHD)
- GTHX +2.5% (announced CEO succession plan; lightly traded)
- VYNE +2.4% (announces its novel ZILXI topical foam, 1.5% is available as of today by prescription for the treatment of inflammatory lesions of rosacea in adults)
- FMCI +1.9% (stockholders approve extending date to complete business combination to October 30)
- NVS +1.7% (presents new interim Phase 3 STR1VE-EU data demonstrating therapeutic benefit, including prolonged event-free survival, increased motor function and milestone achievement)
- IONS +1.2% (ION373 received orphan drug designation for the treatment of Alexander disease)
Analyst comments:
- AZUL +7.4% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman)
- AEG +7% (upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan)
- CATB +6.6% (initiated with Buy at HC Wainwright)
- DKNG +5% (initiated with a Buy at Needham)
- GT +4.7% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Northcoast)
- KAR +4.2% (upgraded to Overweight rom Equal-Weight at Stephens)
- MT +3.9% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Kepler)
- GOL +3.6% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman)
- SYNH +3.1% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman)
- WDAY +2.3% (resumed with a Buy from Neutral at Citigroup)
- LHX +2% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS)
- AMZN +1.7% (target raised to $4500 from $3925 at Pivotal Research Group)
- DVN +1.2% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Truist)
- CAE +1% (upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets)
- VLRS +1% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman)
Early premarket gappers
- Gapping up:
- ADES +66.3%, AMAG +42%, SBH +7%, SAIL +6.6%, STM +6.6%, PRVB +5.9%, FLR +4.4%, PLTR +3.5%, RGEN +3.4%, JBLU +3.3%, AMC +3%, KDMN +2.8%, GTHX +2.5%, SNN +2.3%, AAL +2%, FMCI +1.9%, NVS +1.7%, UAL +1.7%, DAL +1.6%, LUV +1.4%, JETS +1.3%, IONS +1.2%, PEP +1%
- Gapping down:
- ZSAN -53.7%, SELB -45.2%, LOGC -23.9%, NNDM -13.3%, CLI -5.2%, IMXI -4.2%, PAR -4.1%, NG -4.1%, BEAM -2.4%, LAD -1.3%, MDT -0.9%, AZN -0.6%
Johnson ‘will not hesitate’ to impose more virus restrictions
Imperial College study gives hope growth in infection rate is slowing in UK
Boris Johnson has put the British public on notice that more coronavirus restrictions could be imposed soon as his chief scientific adviser admitted the virus was not “under control”.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday, the prime minister said: “If the evidence requires it, we will not hesitate to take further measures that would, I’m afraid, be more costly than the ones we have put into effect now.”
But hours later new data provided some hope that infection rates had begun slowing towards the end of September.
Although overall infection numbers remained high, the latest results from England’s largest study showed that the R number — the average number of new cases generated by an infected individual — had dropped from 1.7 in late August and early September to 1.1.
The study from Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori tested more than 80,000 volunteers between September 18 and September 26.
Paul Elliott, director of the Imperial programme, said the findings “show some early evidence that the growth of new cases may have slowed, suggesting efforts to control the infection are working”. But he added that the prevalence of infection was the highest the study had recorded to date.
Mr Johnson said he would defy those who wanted the government to “give up and let the virus take its course” with a huge loss of life.
His warning came after the government sought to quell a rebellion by Tory MPs by promising parliament would vote on Covid-19 measures “wherever possible” before they come into force.
After six gruelling months, Mr Johnson insisted that the public did not want to “throw in the sponge” and were determined to keep fighting the virus.
Conservative MPs are increasingly worried about the economic damage caused by further restrictions — and wary about the influence of unelected scientists in Number 10.
The government admitted on Wednesday that taxpayers faced losses of up to £23bn so far in bad loans across its emergency business bailout schemes.
Before the release of the Imperial data, Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser, who was speaking alongside the prime minister, said: “Things are definitely going in the wrong direction. We don’t have this under control at the moment . . . there’s no cause for complacency here at all.”
Chris Whitty, chief medical officer, warned: “We’ve got a long winter ahead of us.”
The latest daily data showed a continuing uptick in infections with 71 deaths and 7,108 cases. Sir Patrick made the case, however, that data was not directly comparable with the spring when there was much less testing.
Mr Johnson insisted that the pandemic was a problem across the country, despite the imposition of stronger measures in certain regions. “It’s vital to stress that this remains a national threat and a national challenge.”
The Imperial study showed infection levels increased across all age groups and regions. They were highest in 18-24 year olds, with 1 in 100 infected. The north-west had the highest levels of infection and the number of infections in London increased fivefold.
On Wednesday afternoon, ministers bowed to pressure from Tory MPs and opposition parties and announced that the House of Commons would be able to vote on some new virus restrictions. The climbdown will mean greater scrutiny of national measures by MPs — although not regional restrictions.
Matt Hancock, health secretary, said: “For significant national measures with effect in the whole of England or UK-wide, we will consult parliament wherever possible, we will hold votes before such regulations come into force.”
The government’s pledge of more parliamentary scrutiny was applauded by Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 backbench committee and rebel ringleader, who said the concessions showed a “real promise of transparency and engagement”.
But Labour’s Chris Bryant said the promise was “not worth the paper it’s not been written on”.
MPs voted in favour of renewing the emergency Coronavirus Act by 330 votes to 24 — including seven Tory rebels.
Earlier, the Speaker of the House of Commons accused the government of treating parliament with “contempt” over its handling of coronavirus restrictions.
Lindsay Hoyle said he would not allow a vote on a parliamentary amendment proposed by Sir Graham seeking greater parliamentary oversight of restrictions. But he criticised the way ministers had used statutory instruments — a type of secondary legislation not necessarily needing parliamentary approval — to impose the limits.
At prime minister’s questions Mr Johnson came under fierce criticism from Labour leader Keir Starmer, who questioned how the public were supposed to understand coronavirus restrictions if the government was not clear about them.
Mr Johnson was forced to apologise on Tuesday after mischaracterising the rule of six.
Sir Keir said that over the past 24 hours there had been “widespread confusion about the restrictions”.
Telefonica +2-3% Undisclosed sources point to DT looking at TEF
DTE Mkt Cap 68b / EV 230bil - TEF SM Mkt Cap 15.6b / EV 73bil
>>> Up
* AA PLC Raised to Hold at Berenberg; PT 30 pence
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* Airbus Raised to Buy at Berenberg; PT 76 euros
* Banco Santander Raised to Buy at Oddo BHF; PT 2.10 euros
* Beazley Raised to Hold at Peel Hunt; PT 325 pence
* Coca-Cola HBC Raised to Buy at Goldman; PT 2,500 pence
* Covestro Raised to Buy at MainFirst; PT 53 euros (+)
* Daimler Raised to Buy at M.M. Warburg; PT 56 euros (+)
* Exel Raised to Buy at Gilbert Dupont; PT 48 euros (+)
* Goodyear Raised to Buy at Northcoast; PT $12
* Grand City Properties Raised to Buy at Hauck & Aufhaeuser (+)
* Grifols Raised to Neutral at Citi
* Puma Raised to Reduce at AlphaValue
* Telenor Raised to Hold at SocGen; PT 150 kroner
* Xaar Raised to Buy at Investec; PT 160 pence (+)
>>> Down
* Altice Europe Cut to Neutral at Exane; PT 4.20 euros
* Bayer Cut to Hold at HSBC; PT 59 euros
* Bayer Cut to Neutral at Citi; PT 51.50 euros
* Boliden Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank; PT 265 kronor
* Boohoo Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse; PT 320 pence (+)
* Britvic Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT 910 pence
* CaixaBank Cut to Neutral at Oddo BHF; PT 2.70 euros
* DCC Cut to Sell at Goldman; PT 5,000 pence
* Hurricane Energy Cut to Hold at Investec; PT 4 pence (+)
* Elisa Rated New Sell at SocGen; PT 40 euros
* Koenig & Bauer Cut to Hold at HSBC; PT 20 euros
* Ossur HF Rated New Buy at DNB Markets; PT 51.61 kroner (+)
* Rubis Cut to Neutral at Goldman; PT 40 euros
>>> Initiation
* Borussia Dortmund Rated New Hold at MainFirst; PT 6 euros
* Elop Rated New Buy at Arctic Securities; PT 11 kroner (+)
* ISS Reinstated Underweight at Morgan Stanley; PT 80 kroner
* Orsted Rated New Buy at Berenberg; PT 1,060 kroner
* RPS Group Rated New Buy at Berenberg; PT 60 pence
* Siemens Gamesa Reinstated Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley
>>> Call
* Airbus Upgraded at Berenberg on More Confidence About Production (+)
* AA Plc Likely To Get Offer With Little Premium, Berenberg Says
* Asos, AB Foods and BAT Added to RBC’s Global Best Ideas List
* Bayer’s ‘Equity Story Has Diminished’ After Warning, Citi Says (+)
* Beazley Loses Only Negative Call, Risks Now Balanced: Peel Hunt
* ISS Growth, Margins Seen Staying Under Pressure: Morgan Stanley
* Orsted a Buy as Growth Potential Too Big to Ignore: Berenberg
* Siemens Gamesa ‘Compelling,’ But Upside Limited: Morgan Stanley
* Vestas Cements Leadership With EU3.6b Orders in 3Q: Sydbank
* Veolia-Engie Statements Indicates Progress Being Made: Jefferies (+)