Carl Icahn Formally Seeks to Replace Four Occidental Petroleum Directors
July 19 2019 - 2:37AM
Dow Jones News
By Saurabh Chaturvedi
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has filed a formal solicitation
statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, taking
another step in seeking to replace four directors at Occidental
Petroleum Corp. (OXY), alleging the company's board mismanaged its
$38 billion deal to buy Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC).
The statement filed on Thursday said: "The company's current
directors have made a number of mistakes in how and at what cost
they pursued the acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation."
Mr. Icahn seeks to replace the directors and also make some changes
to the company's by-laws.
The move to formally file the solicitation statement follows
talks between the activist investor and Occidental Chief Executive
Vicki Hollub over the issue.
Occidental topped Chevron Corp. in a bidding war for Anadarko in
May, winning prized assets in the heart of the U.S. oil boom: the
Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico. Occidental's emergence
as the likely victor means it is poised to absorb a company nearly
its own size as it bulks up in the region.
Chevron had agreed to purchase Anadarko for about $33 billion on
April 12, but Occidental offered the oil company $38 billion on
April 24 and then sealed its bid by boosting the cash portion of
its offer. Occidental's deal with Anadarko is expected to close in
the second half of 2019.
A number of large Occidental shareholders opposed the deal. Mr.
Icahn, who holds $1.6 billion in Occidental shares, or nearly 5%,
on June 26 filed a preliminary copy of the solicitation statement
with the SEC.
Occidental didn't immediately respond to request for comment.
The company had previously said that it looks forward to addressing
Mr. Icahn's concerns. It had earlier also said the Anadarko deal
offered "a unique opportunity to deliver compelling value and
returns to the shareholders of both companies."
Anadarko also didn't immediately respond to request for
comment.
Write to Saurabh Chaturvedi at saurabh.chaturvedi@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 19, 2019 02:22 ET (06:22 GMT)
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