In a separate 13D filing, Icahn reported owning 32.65 million shares of Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG), accounting for 13.83% of the company’s common stock. This compares with the 28.55 million-share position in the stock revealed by Icahn through the latest round of 13F filings. The billionaire activist investor put his money where his mouth is, after reiterating his bullish views on the energy sector at the DealBook conference in early November. “I don’t really mind them going down, because I know in my mind that I am going to buy more of them. I am waiting to buy more of these oil companies”, Icahn said at the conference. This move comes after the price of Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) declined last week amid worries of sluggish demand and increased supply. Specifically, the price of Asian spot cargoes for January equaled $7.20 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) this week, down from $7.80 per mmBtu recorded two weeks ago.
Shares of Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG) are down by 40% for the year, which has put significant weight on the performance of Icahn’s equity portfolio. At the same time, the energy company focused on LNG-related businesses failed to maintain investor interest during the third quarter among the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey. The number of smart money investors with stakes in Cheniere declined to 62 from 76 during the three-month period, while the overall value of these stakes shrunk by approximately 21% to $7.12 billion quarter-over-quarter. Andreas Halvorsen’s Viking Global holds a 13.06 million-share position in Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSEMKT:LNG) as of September 30.
As stated by another 13D filing, Bulldog Investors, managed by Phillip Goldstein, Andrew Dakos and Steven Samuels, owns 3.93 million shares of Hill International Inc. (NYSE:HIL), which represent 7.63% of the company’s outstanding shares. Bulldog Investors upped its stake in the professional services firm by 228,171 shares over the past 60 days. More importantly, the investment firm “recommend that an investment banker be hired to pursue a liquidity event to maximize stockholder value including a sale of the Company”. Bulldog Investors revealed that D.C. Capital Partners made an offer to purchase Hill International Inc. (NYSE:HIL) for “not less than $5.50 per share” in early May, which represented a premium of more than 40% at that point in time, though Hill’s management rejected the buyout offer and outlined that it had a strategic plan that would increase shareholder value. Even so, the investment firm stated its discontent with Hill’s failure to increase shareholder value, saying that “we can’t see any reason to prefer management’s failed strategic plan over the sale of the company at $5.50 per share or higher”.
The stock is 17% in the red this year, but the hedge fund sentiment towards the struggling company did not change during the third quarter. Ten smart money investors monitored by the Insider Monkey team were invested in the company at the end of September, hoarding 9.80% of the company’s shares at that time. Nevertheless, the value of their investments dropped to $16.31 million from $41.55 million quarter-over-quarter. Peter Schliemann’s Rutabaga Capital Management cut its holding of Hill International Inc. (NYSE:HIL) by 18% during the July-to-September period, ending the quarter with 2.95 million shares.
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