The Wall Street Journal reported last night that, Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) expected Carl Icahn to disclose a large stake in the troubled natural gas company.
We waited all day to see an official filling. All we saw was more news about Icahn having bought shares in the company. After hours, an SEC filling came out, we thought that would be the magic one. It ended up being a letter from caLPERs unrelated to Carl Icahn completely.
The Wall Street Journal had another article today titled ‘Chesapeake’s McClendon Welcomes Icahn Back to the Family.’
The article even stated about Icahn:
“He called me to thank me when it was all over,” McClendon said. “If he comes in I’m pretty confident he’ll make a lot of money.”
The stock was up 4.8% on this ‘news.’
Just for some background:
The company has already been feeling pressure from existing shareholders. Noster Capital, a hedge fund with holdings of Chesapeake Energy sent a letter to the company this morning urging the company to fire CEO, Aubrey McClendon. The hedge fund is upset over the large perks given to the CEO, and his alleged mis-use of company funds for personal purposes.
Mason Hawkins, CEO of Southeastern management, has called for Chespeake to consider selling itself. Hawkins is a long term oriented value investor, who owns close to 14% of the company.
Chesapeake Energy has a lot of debt and is facing trouble due to the record low prices of natural gas. The abundance of the resource has sent prices down from over $10 per barrel in , to under $2 per barrel today.
Shareholders feel that the company would be a valuable asset, and they own a pipeline which many feel has tremendous value.
We reached out to the attorney for Aubrey McClendon, CEO and Former Chairman of Chesapeake Energy to ask him about the issue. It does not make sense with all these media reports are coming out that Icahn bought a huge stake (pressumably large enough to require an SEC filling) and nothing showing up.
This might also violate fair disclosure, if certain people know that Icahn has bought shares but it has not been disclosed to the SEC. The lawyer for McClendon stated that ‘No clue. We try not to disclose anything. Ever.’
The Carl Icahn mystery remains (at least for the moment)…………
