- Sun Mar 04, 2018 7:37 am
#100558
A former adviser to President Trump sold off $31.3 million in stocks he owned in a steel-dependent company, just days before the president announced hefty tariffs on foreign-made steel.
Carl Icahn, a billionaire investor and Trump's former "special adviser to the president on regulatory reform," sold the shares between Feb. 12 and Feb. 22, according to an SEC filing that was first reported on by the left-leaning website ThinkProgress.
The shares Icahn sold, in the Manitowoc Company, have lost value fairly steadily over the past month but took another tumble Thursday and Friday after Trump announced that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel.
Manitowoc is a global manufacturer of cranes and is therefore highly dependent on steel. Reuters mentioned that the company's stock fell more than 6 percent Thursday in a story about how companies around the world were reacting to the tariff announcement.
Icahn sold the stock for between $32 and $34 a share in February, but the price of a share at market close on Friday was $26.93. The sale represented roughly a third of Icahn's total ownership stake in the company, according to CNBC.
"After the trades, Icahn owned 4.85 percent of the company, down from his previous stake of 7.5 percent," CNBC's Tae Kim reported. The resulting 4.85 percent stake means Icahn does not have to report further sales of the company's stock to the SEC, according to The Street.
Before last month, Icahn had not been active with the Manitowoc stocks in years, reported The Washington Post. The last time he traded it was in January 2015.
In February, however, he began selling his shares in the company before the public knew a steel tariff could be on the immediate horizon. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that he was recommending the tariff to the president on Feb. 16.
Icahn has not commented publicly about the trades and has not responded to requests for comment by NPR, made on Saturday.
Carl Icahn, a billionaire investor and Trump's former "special adviser to the president on regulatory reform," sold the shares between Feb. 12 and Feb. 22, according to an SEC filing that was first reported on by the left-leaning website ThinkProgress.
The shares Icahn sold, in the Manitowoc Company, have lost value fairly steadily over the past month but took another tumble Thursday and Friday after Trump announced that he would impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel.
Manitowoc is a global manufacturer of cranes and is therefore highly dependent on steel. Reuters mentioned that the company's stock fell more than 6 percent Thursday in a story about how companies around the world were reacting to the tariff announcement.
Icahn sold the stock for between $32 and $34 a share in February, but the price of a share at market close on Friday was $26.93. The sale represented roughly a third of Icahn's total ownership stake in the company, according to CNBC.
"After the trades, Icahn owned 4.85 percent of the company, down from his previous stake of 7.5 percent," CNBC's Tae Kim reported. The resulting 4.85 percent stake means Icahn does not have to report further sales of the company's stock to the SEC, according to The Street.
Before last month, Icahn had not been active with the Manitowoc stocks in years, reported The Washington Post. The last time he traded it was in January 2015.
In February, however, he began selling his shares in the company before the public knew a steel tariff could be on the immediate horizon. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced that he was recommending the tariff to the president on Feb. 16.
Icahn has not commented publicly about the trades and has not responded to requests for comment by NPR, made on Saturday.