Carl Icahn reveals stake in Southwest Gas, urges company to drop acquisition

Carl Icahn on Tuesday introduced a sizeable stake in Southwest Gas, and the activist investor is pushing the Las Vegas-based utility firm to drop its rumored acquisition of pure gasoline firm Questar Pipeline.

“In the course of the previous few years, administration of SWX has made quite a lot of egregious errors on the expense of shareholders. Nevertheless, the acquisition of Questar you might be presently being rumored to make on the value you might be prepared to pay will make all previous errors pale compared,” Icahn wrote in a letter to Southwest’s board of administrators made public on Tuesday. “The acquisition will lead to critical diminution of shareholder worth.”

Shares of Southwest climbed greater than 5% in noon buying and selling Tuesday. In his letter, Icahn added that the gasoline firm did not reply to his inquiry on this matter.

Southwest did not instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.

Icahn’s letter got here after Reuters reported that Southwest is in superior talks to purchase Questar, Dominion Power’s transportation and storage enterprise.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway was going after Questar final yr, however the deal was terminated in July on account of “ongoing uncertainty related to attaining clearance from the Federal Commerce Fee.”

Within the letter to Southwest’s board, Icahn mentioned he is “extraordinarily dissatisfied” with administration’s efficiency over the previous few years as “a big shareholder.” He cited a “debilitated relationship with regulators,” runaway bills and weakened credit score profile.