Global offshore drilling company, Transocean Ltd. (
RIG
), announced yesterday that activist Guru
Carl Icahn
has grabbed a 3.26 percent position in the company, according to
a Transocean press release on Monday and an SEC filing.
The company noted that the position consists of 1.56 percent of
Transocean's issued shares, and 1.7 percent worth of a synthetic
long position (including options to acquire shares). Icahn
additionally seeks approval to potentially obtain voting
securities of Transocean in an amount exceeding $682.1 million.
Buying this amount would place his stake in the company at about
5 percent.
The news came timely after Transocean was reported agreeing to
pay $1.4 billion to settle criminal and civil charges over the
2010 explosion of its Deepwater Horizon rig located in the Gulf
of Mexico, which killed 11 workers and triggered a massive
offshore oil spill.
Although Icahn's bid for the company slightly elevated its price
in the market, Transocean's stock is still recovering from the
gigantic loss it suffered due to the explosion.
RIG
data by
GuruFocus.com
Prior to the explosion, Transocean traded around $90. As seen in
the chart above, the stock took a dive in April 2010, at the time
of the rig disaster. This morning, Transocean trades at $53.83,
its stock back down from yesterday's inflation.
Icahn has yet to reveal his intentions for acquiring the
mentioned position amount in the company, although analysts
reported by Forbes and the Wall Street Journal similarly suggest
that the Guru's motives are to resume Transocean's dividend
payments and to have his share of presence in the company's
board.
Popularly known for his hostile takeovers, Icahn has been shaking
up executive teams for years, including the widely covered proxy
contents at CVR Energy (
CVI
), where Icahn owns 82 percent of outstanding shares, and
Chesapeake Energy (
CHK
), where Icahn owns 11.53 percent of outstanding shares.
About 8 percent of his 16-stock portfolio represents the energy
sector according to GuruFocus Sector Weightings.
His top holdings, besides Chesapeake and CVR are Forest
Laboratories (
FRX
), Federal-Mogul (
FDML
) and Hain Celestial Group (
HAIN
).
Other Gurus who have stakes in Transocean include Chris Davis who
owns 5.6 million shares, Leon Cooperman who owns 3 million shares
and Steven Cohen who owns about 2 million shares (RIG: Guru
Trades).
View more of Icahn's latest trades here. Also view his
undervalued stocks, top growth companies and high yield stocks.
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