Carl Icahn Discloses a Position in Transocean Ltd.

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Jan 15, 2013
Global offshore drilling company, Transocean Ltd. (RIG, Financial), announced yesterday that activist Guru Carl Icahn has grabbed a 3.26 percent position in the company, according to a Transocean press release on Monday and an SEC filing.

The company noted that the position consists of 1.56 percent of Transocean’s issued shares, and 1.7 percent worth of a synthetic long position (including options to acquire shares). Icahn additionally seeks approval to potentially obtain voting securities of Transocean in an amount exceeding $682.1 million. Buying this amount would place his stake in the company at about 5 percent.

The news came timely after Transocean was reported agreeing to pay $1.4 billion to settle criminal and civil charges over the 2010 explosion of its Deepwater Horizon rig located in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 workers and triggered a massive offshore oil spill.

Although Icahn’s bid for the company slightly elevated its price in the market, Transocean’s stock is still recovering from the gigantic loss it suffered due to the explosion.

1358265981260.pngRIG data by GuruFocus.com

Prior to the explosion, Transocean traded around $90. As seen in the chart above, the stock took a dive in April 2010, at the time of the rig disaster. This morning, Transocean trades at $53.83, its stock back down from yesterday’s inflation.

Icahn has yet to reveal his intentions for acquiring the mentioned position amount in the company, although analysts reported by Forbes and the Wall Street Journal similarly suggest that the Guru’s motives are to resume Transocean’s dividend payments and to have his share of presence in the company’s board.

Popularly known for his hostile takeovers, Icahn has been shaking up executive teams for years, including the widely covered proxy contents at CVR Energy (CVI), where Icahn owns 82 percent of outstanding shares, and Chesapeake Energy (CHK), where Icahn owns 11.53 percent of outstanding shares.

About 8 percent of his 16-stock portfolio represents the energy sector according to GuruFocus Sector Weightings.

His top holdings, besides Chesapeake and CVR are Forest Laboratories (FRX, Financial), Federal-Mogul (FDML, Financial) and Hain Celestial Group (HAIN, Financial).

Other Gurus who have stakes in Transocean include Chris Davis who owns 5.6 million shares, Leon Cooperman who owns 3 million shares and Steven Cohen who owns about 2 million shares (RIG: Guru Trades).

View more of Icahn’s latest trades here. Also view his undervalued stocks, top growth companies and high yield stocks.

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