Carl Icahn’s losing streak continued into the second quarter, as his investment vehicle swung to a loss amid souring investments and a 9 percent decline in his hedge funds.
Icahn Enterprises reported a quarterly loss of $98.8 million on revenue losses of $150 million, compared with a year-ago profit of $64.2 million on revenue of $783 million. The per-share loss widened to $1.37 from 40 cents last year.
The news sent shares of publicly traded Icahn Enterprises down $3.65, or 5.5 percent, to $63.36.
Icahn reported outflows of $166.4 million in the period ended June 30. Combined with losses of $719.6 million, assets fell to around $7 billion at the end of the quarter, down from $7.9 billion.
Last quarter, Icahn Enterprises, which holds Icahn’s hedge funds and other businesses, reported net income of $470.4 million, or $6.88 per share.
The Far Rockaway, Queens native has been having a challenging year and his hedge funds are suffering their first losses since they were launched in 2004.
The 72-year-old’s losing streak, which started midway through 2007, has pushed the funds down roughly 9 percent for the year, according to investors.
The 1980s corporate raider has been getting slammed on a number of investments, with his biggest losses coming from his investment in Motorola, which is down nearly 30 percent since he first got involved with the company in February.
Icahn has also lost big on Yahoo!, and attributed 70 percent of the firm’s losses for the first six months of 2008 on his bets on the cellphone and Internet giant.
As an activist, Icahn takes big stakes and tried to profit by forcing changes, such as mergers or spin-offs.
“Losses were primarily a result of the decline in value of core holdings of Motorola Inc. and Yahoo!, which represented over 70 percent” of the funds’ losses during the first six months of the year, Icahn Enterprises said in a filing.
Icahn and his funds paid about $13.69 a share for their 7.6 percent stake in Motorola.
The company blamed the negative revenue number in part on a $1.1 billion drop in revenue at the company’s investment management unit, which got hammered by a decline in the value in equity positions in Icahn’s so-called Private Funds.