Icahn Enterprises L.P. Announces Management & Financial Update; Names Icahn Capital Portfolio Manager, Andrew Teno, As Chief Executive Officer

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | February 21, 2024 10:08am

• Names Icahn Capital Portfolio Manager, Andrew Teno, as Chief Executive Officer
• Names Current Chief Executive Officer, David Willetts, as Chief Executive Officer of Pep Boys
• Announces Estimated Indicative Net Asset Value of $4.76 billion as of Year End 2023
• Maintains Quarterly Distribution of $1.00 per Depositary Unit
• During the last few months we have defeased all our 2024 notes and the next note maturity of $750 million is December of 2025
• Our cash position was $2.7 billion across the Holding Company and Investment segments as of Year End 2023 (1)

SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla., Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Icahn Enterprises L.P. (NASDAQ:IEP) today released the following:

Chairman Carl C. Icahn stated:

"I have come to believe that activism, on a risk reward basis, is the best investment paradigm that exists. While this method of investing certainly is somewhat volatile, over the long term the returns cannot be matched. 

In 2000, IEP began to expand its business beyond its traditional real estate activities to fully embrace the activist strategy.  On January 1, 2000, the closing sale price of our depositary units was $7.63 per depositary unit. On February 16, 2024, our depositary units closed at $21.22 per depositary unit, representing an increase of approximately 1,066% since January 1, 2000 (including reinvestment of distributions into additional depositary units and taking into account in-kind distributions of depositary units). Comparatively, the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial and Russell 2000 indices increased approximately 436%, 491% and 453%, respectively, over the same period (including reinvestment of distributions into those indices). 

The reason activism works so well is that, somewhat unfortunately, many public companies are not well run.  It is very difficult and expensive to remove a poorly-performing CEO and board. And that is why so few investors today employ true activism. Fortunately for IEP and its unitholders, we are in a unique position to be activists. Given our track record, our stable capital base, and our willingness to launch proxy contests (which are extremely arduous and expensive to conduct and even more so to win), we are frequently invited into the tent without ever having to take aggressive actions. To that end, we currently have 25 board seats in our disclosed public company investments.

We encourage all of our companies to pursue spin-offs and asset sales when they create value, improve leadership in key positions and help manage and settle complex litigation.  We often find ourselves investing in companies that are temporarily out of favor and/or contain hidden jewels. We have continued to pick our spots and find new, exciting activist opportunities, including the recently announced positions in American Electric Power Company, Inc. (ticker: AEP) and JetBlue Airways Corp. (ticker: JBLU) within our Investment segment. 

To best position IEP and our activist efforts for future success, we are making several management changes — including naming Icahn Capital portfolio manager Andrew Teno as CEO of IEP and naming David Willetts as Chief Executive Officer of Pep Boys."  

Andrew Teno stated: "There is nobody in corporate America who is not familiar with Carl Icahn and his often imitated but never duplicated activist strategy. I look forward to working with Carl, even more closely than I have since joining in 2020. 

Chairman Carl C. Icahn stated: "Andrew has had an impressive record of stock picking and position stewardship within our Investment segment. I am confident in his ability to help lead IEP into the next phase of its evolution."

Chairman Carl C. Icahn further stated: "David Willetts has done an admirable job in improving the operational performance of our portfolio companies. We believe David's skill set is particularly suited to work on a day-to-day basis to drive the significant value creation potential in Pep Boys."

Mr. Icahn continued: "Over the long term, our activist returns have been outstanding. Given our hedge portfolio and the frequent long time horizon of our complex activist investments, our returns can often be lumpy. There are also times when our hedge book can go against us and overwhelm the performance of our long positions. This underperformance has occurred several times in IEP's history. While there are never guarantees, we expect our returns to improve back to historical levels where our long positions far outperform our hedges. If successful, this should result in greatly enhanced NAV."

Icahn Enterprises is also announcing estimated indicative Net Asset Value of $4.76 billion as of December 31, 2023, a decrease of approximately $411 million, with underperformance driven primarily by the investment funds and the return of capital to unitholders. 

In addition, IEP is announcing its intention to again declare a $1.00 per depositary unit distribution for Q4 2023, which represents a 19% annualized yield based on the closing price on February 16, 2024, and unitholders will continue to have the right to elect whether to receive cash or additional depositary units.

(1)	Our cash position of $2.7 billion consists of Investment segment cash held at consolidated partnerships of $1.1 billion, Holding Company cash and cash equivalents of $1.6 billion and Investment segment cash and cash equivalents of $23 million.

Posted In: IEP