The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Brett Icahn, son of famous activist investor Carl Icahn, is having an official coming out party on Wall Street.
Young Carl Icahn to launch a hedge fund
The younger Icahn, 34, is expected to launch a hedge fund with partner David Schechter, 38, and take outside investors, according to the report. Icahn Enterprises LP (NASDAQ:IEP), Carl Icahn’s public company, will own 35% of the new fund company and is expected to provide $1 billion in investment seed capital to manage, the report said. The pair of Icahn and Schechter currently manage a $4.8 billion portfolio that has generated a 37% return since inception, according to an October 2013 news release.
If true, Icahn’s son could become the first of the “Icahn Cubs” since Carl Icahn said he would groom a number of protegees. (Former Icahn right hand man Keith Meister of Corvex Capital received funding from Icahn in 2011, before Icahn started to popularize the notion of his seeding a variety of funds.) ValueWalk had previously reported on how Carl Icahn, 78, was creating a feeder system for new hedge funds, similar to the “Tiger Cubs” created by hedge fund executive Julian Robertson, who groomed young fund managers after a successful fund career from 1980 to March of 2000.)
The new fund is expected to adopt an activist investor strategy favored by Carl Icahn. It is unknown to what extent the younger Icahn will go public with positions in the fund or speak with the media about the fund’s aggressive activist investing strategy, as his father is wanton to do with effect on the stock price. Brett Icahn and Schechter convinced the elder Icahn to invest in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) last summer, for instance, and then the stock quickly appreciated after Carl Icahn announced the investment on Twitter, the edgy means to deliver insider information.
Independence for the younger Icahn
The new deal provides the younger Icahn a chance to earn more money and have an ownership stake in the enitity. Under the new arrangement, the two fund partners own 65% of the fund-management company, the report noted, saying the yet to be named fund is expected to call Miami home. Making deals from a boat on Biscayne Bay is potentially in their future.
