The controversial billionaire who has snapped up more than 60million shares in oil giant Talisman has won two seats on the firm’s board, a move which could speed up its North Sea exit.
Activist investor Carl Icahn, the 18th richest man in America, announced in October that he has invested £186million in Talisman, which has 2,500 staff and contractors in Aberdeen, and 11 North Sea installations. He said at the time that he was looking for a seat on the board, but last night it emerged that he had struck a deal to get two nominees at the top table.
Under the agreement, one of the new directors will sit on Talisman’s chief executive succession committee. The oil producer has previously said that current boss Hal Kvisle intends to step down in 2014.
Mr Icahn has agreed to support Talisman’s director nominees at the 2014 annual meeting, the company said. Samuel Merksamer and Jonathan Christodoro, who will join Talisman’s board this month, are managing directors at Icahn Capital, a unit of Icahn Enterprises.
Calgary-based Talisman sold half of its UK North Sea assets to the Chinese state-backed Sinopec last December in a £932million joint venture deal.
Mr Kvisle said last month that the company plans to “dilute and exit” its North Sea business but added that “contractual obligations” meant the process would take longer.
The company is under pressure from investors, including Mr Icahn, to step up its programme to sell assets to reduce debt levels.
His investment makes him its second-largest shareholder at Talisman, and he said his firm, Charles Icahn Enterprises, was ready to launch a string of “friendly or not so friendly” acquisitions. He said: “There has never been a better time than today for activist investing, if practised properly. Mr Icahn has built up his fortune with stakes in some of the world’s most famous companies, including Motorola, Time Warner and Fairmont Hotels.
Time Magazine described him as a ruthless “corporate raider” after his hostile takeover of US airline TWA in 1985.
He later sold TWA’s assets to repay the debt he used to buy the company.
In 1988, he took TWA private, gaining a personal profit of £292million.