Activist investor Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises L.P. IEP told investors late Thursday that the company does not face liquidity problems and it will declare a distribution of $2 per unit for the quarter ended March 31. In a statement to shareholders signed by Icahn, the company said it would “normally” wait for its earnings call to share the news but decided to act after receiving “many inquiries.” Icahn Enterprises, Icahn’s investment arm, has been under a cloud this week following a short-seller report. “We would like to reassure our long-term unitholders that the market disruption caused by the self-serving Hindenburg report does not affect IEP’s liquidity,” Icahn said in the statement. “I as usual will elect to take the distribution in units. The fundamentals of our business, and our belief in the activist paradigm that has served us well for decades, remain unchanged.” Icahn said he intends to respond to the Hindenburg report, which accused the company of inflating its value, “at length” and to “vigorously defend IEP and its unitholders” “As we stated previously, we believe that IEP’s performance will speak for itself over the long term as it always has,” said Icahn, who chairs Icahn Enterprises’s board. Icahn Enterprises stock rose more than 4% in the extended session Thursday after ending the regular trading day down 7.6%.
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