Hedge billionaire Steve Cohen (above) is moving into shareholder activist-investing territory, where Carl Icahn has long made his mark. (PR NEWSWIRE)
Watch out, Carl Icahn! Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital is encroaching on your turf.
Cohen’s $14 billion Stamford, Conn., hedge-fund giant is venturing into the activist-investing waters where Icahn swims, The Post has learned.
The move is being spearheaded by SAC portfolio manager David Rosen, who has been butting heads with Spokane, Wash.-based Clearwater Paper Corp. since May, sources said.
In May, Rosen penned a letter to Clearwater Chairman and CEO Gordon Jones calling the stock “deeply undervalued.”
Last week, SAC, which has a 7.1 percent stake in the papermaker, proposed to Clearwater’s board that the company split itself in two and consider selling one or both parts.
“We continue to carefully analyze their ideas, and we look forward to continuing a dialogue,” a Clearwater spokesman said.
People familiar with Rosen’s plans say Clearwater won’t be the last, and that Rosen and SAC analyst Shoney Katz are scouting out more opportunities to make money through corporate cage-rattling.
“My understanding is that Rosen’s portfolio has expanded its mandate to include activism,” said Ken Squire of activist research firm 13D Monitor.
Squire said he expects “a new level of activist 13Ds from SAC” as a result, referring to regulatory paperwork required by large shareholders with activist intentions.
The duo hopes to eventually employ tactics such as waging board proxy contests, according to another person familiar with Rosen’s plans.
A person close to SAC said any such efforts will be limited to Rosen — who is one of more than 100 portfolio managers at SAC — and that the move doesn’t represent a serious shift in strategy.
Neither Rosen nor Katz returned a request for comment. An SAC spokesman declined to comment.
Experts say they expect more investors to turn to activism as a way to eke out returns in a tough environment.
A recent report from Goldman Sachs estimated that just 11 percent of “smart-money” hedge funds are outperforming the S&P 500 this year.
Although Cohen has dipped his toes into activist waters before, it’s not his modus operandi. In 2007, he joined forces with Jana Partners to push TD Ameritrade to merge with one of its rivals — to no avail.
That same year, Cohen joined a group led by Oppenheimer Funds that pulled off a bloodless coup of video-game company Take-Two Interactive. In one fell swoop, the group removed the entire board.