Icahn Enterprises L.P. IEP on Wednesday issued a firm rebuttal against a short-selling report accusing it of inflating asset values that has shaved some $6 billion of its market cap in a few weeks. “Hindenburg Research, founded by Nathan Anderson, would be more aptly named Blitzkrieg Research given its tactics of wantonly destroying property and harming innocent civilians,” said Carl Icahn, chairman of the IEP board, in a statement. IEP will take all appropriate steps “to protect our unitholders and fight back,” said the billionaire activist investor. Icahn acknowledged that the investment segment has underperformed in recent years, which he blamed on its bearish view of the market and large net short position. “We recently have taken steps to reduce the short positions in our hedge book and concentrate for the most part on activism, which has served us so well in the past. We believe our existing portfolio has considerable upside potential over the coming years,” he said. The statement comes shortly after the company posted first-quarter earnings showing a surprise loss and disclosed a federal probe of its corporate governance and other issues. The stock was last down 17%.
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