Shares of Talisman Energy Inc. (NYSE:TLM) declined 2 percent on Tuesday, the day after Carl Icahn disclosed his stake in the company. He has indeed expressed his intention to go activist on the company, and analysts at RBC Capital believe the company is heading toward a corporate split.
Icahn could speed up Talisman’s split
RBC Capital analyst Greg Pardy issued a report Monday after Icahn revealed his stake in Talisman Energy Inc. (NYSE:TLM). He said clearly Icahn’s announced 6 percent stake in the company “legitimizes” the movement in Talisman’s share price over the last week.
In Icahn’s 13D filing, he clearly stated his intentions for Talisman, including talking to management about several topics. Pardy believes Icahn will accelerate the company’s trip down the path of a corporate split. He said Icahn may even push for an outright sale. He notes that since the company is now open to both options, this is a positive for its stock because what it has been doing lately hasn’t generated value for shareholders.
In terms of asset sales, at least regarding what Talisman Energy Inc. (NYSE:TLM) has offered so far, Icahn may not be able to help accelerate them.
Talisman Energy still rated as Outperform
Pardy kept his Outperform rating on Talisman Energy in the wake of Icahn’s announcement. He suspects that investors who otherwise might have remained on the sidelines may not be interested in the stock because of Icahn’s involvement.
A few weeks ago, Pardy issued another report about the company after the institutional dinner with Talisman Energy Inc. (NYSE:TLM) CEO Hal Kvisle. At that point, he said a corporate split would be tricky, and the company had suggested back in March that a corporate split wasn’t on the table. He does say though that Talisman doesn’t appear to believe that either a North American company or an Asian company would be able to individually support its North Sea operations. Also the company appears to want to clean up its North Sea portfolio, with the first part involving the sale of its Norwegian North Sea assets.
