Shares of Icahn Enterprises LP jumped more than 10% in extended trading Thursday after activist investor Carl Icahn said the company does not face liquidity problems and will declare a distribution of $2 per unit for the quarter ended March 31.
In a statement to shareholders, Icahn said that Icahn Enterprises
IEP,
would “normally” wait for its earnings call to share the news but decided to act after receiving “many inquiries” about the payouts.
Icahn Enterprises has been under a cloud this week after a short-seller report, and it has lost about 36% of its value and some $6.5 billion of market cap as of Thursday. On Wednesday, the company said it was moving the release of its first-quarter earnings to before the bell on Wednesday, May 10, without providing an explanation.
In the statement Thursday, Icahn said the company “would like to reassure our long-term unitholders that the market disruption caused by the self-serving Hindenburg report does not affect IEP’s liquidity.”
Don’t miss: As Icahn’s stock slides, its bonds are also falling
Icahn went on to say that he himself will, “as usual,” take the distribution in units. “The fundamentals of our business, and our belief in the activist paradigm that has served us well for decades, remain unchanged.”
Icahn also said he intends to respond to the Hindenburg report, which accused the company of inflating its value, “at length” and to “vigorously defend IEP and its unitholders.”
“As we stated previously, we believe that IEP’s performance will speak for itself over the long term, as it always has,” said Icahn, who chairs Icahn Enterprises’ board.
Icahn Enterprises ended the regular trading day down 7.6%. It has lost 44% in the past 12 months, compared with a drop of about 5.6% for the S&P 500 index
SPX,
