Carl Icahn Taps Former GE Executive to Be CEO of His Firm
April 04 2021 - 5:59AM
Dow Jones News
By Cara Lombardo
After forcing companies to make countless CEO changes in his
career, Carl Icahn is about to make one of his own.
The activist investor said he is hiring a former General
Electric Co. executive to be CEO of his firm, which houses both his
investment fund and a collection of companies he controls.
Aris Kekedjian, a 30-year GE veteran who was the industrial
conglomerate's chief investment officer until 2019, is to be named
Icahn Enterprises LP's chief executive and chief operating officer
Monday, Mr. Icahn said in an interview.
Two longtime Icahn lieutenants -- current CEO Keith Cozza and
Chief Financial Officer SungHwan Cho -- are leaving the firm. Mr.
Icahn, who hired them in 2004 and 2006, respectively, praised their
contributions and said they are leaving on excellent terms. A
factor in the decision was that neither planned to relocate to the
Miami area, where Mr. Icahn and his firm recently moved.
The firm is in the process of hiring a new finance chief, to be
named at a later date.
The moves form part of a broader leadership overhaul
accompanying the 85-year-old Mr. Icahn's move to Florida from New
York and the naming of his son, Brett, as his eventual
successor.
For now, the elder Mr. Icahn remains squarely in charge as
chairman of Icahn Enterprises, which primarily manages the
billionaire's own business interests and investment portfolio and
hasn't managed outside money in years. Icahn Enterprises trades
publicly and has a market value of around $13.3 billion.
At Icahn Enterprises, the CEO role involves overseeing the
portfolio companies and interfacing with banks, while Mr. Icahn and
Brett focus on stock-picking and investment decisions.
The elder Mr. Icahn, who has been notably bearish in the past
few years, has become more sanguine. He says he gave up trying to
predict the market's next move as a steady flow of pandemic aid and
exuberance fanned by Reddit message boards keep it rising.
"It's like you're on some kind of new rocket ship and you don't
know what the hell's going to happen," he said. "I do believe the
rocket ship has got a way to go because of this unprecedented flood
of capital. But eventually, unless we're extremely lucky, it will
have a crash of large magnitude."
Mr. Kekedjian held roles at GE that included running its
businesses in Europe and the Middle East. He oversaw efforts to
simplify its giant finance arm and later helped orchestrate big
deals including GE's 2017 merger of its oil-and-gas business with
Baker Hughes and the merger of GE Transportation and Wabtec Corp.
in 2019.
Mr. Icahn said Mr. Kekedjian's M&A chops will come in handy
for engineering deals involving portfolio companies, which include
refiner CVR Energy Inc. and Pep Boys auto shops.
In the first quarter, Icahn Enterprises' estimated indicative
net asset value -- a rough measure of gross profit -- increased by
around $800 million, including $376 million from the investment
unit, Mr. Icahn said. The increase was partly due to significant
reductions in its short positions in index funds and more of the
firm's bread-and-butter activism.
Since Brett Icahn rejoined the firm in October, he played key
roles in new activist positions in Bausch Health Cos. and
FirstEnergy Corp. Both companies settled with the firm for board
seats, including one now held by him at Bausch.
Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 04, 2021 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)
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