Carl Icahn launches $2.6-bn bid for CVR Energy

Billionaire activist-investor Carl Icahn has launched a $30 a share bid for CVR Energy, and demanded a change in the entire board of the crude oil refiner and fertilizer company.

Icahn's cash offer is a 9-per cent premium over CVR Energy's 15 February closing price on the New York Stock Exchange. CVR Energy shareholders also would receive a ''contingent-value right'' that would entitle them to additional cash if the company is sold for more than the $30 a share.

Sugar Land, Texas-based CVR Energy, which was taken public by Goldman Sachs in 2007, is currently valued at around $2.44 billion.

Icahn's offer values CVR Energy at $2.6 billion, but, said a sale of the company could fetch as much as $37 a share, a 34 per cent premium to the stock's 15 February closing price of $27.60.

Icahn, best known for investing in companies with an aim to make changes in the company's outlook and create more value for shareholders, holds a 14.5-per cent stake and is the largest shareholder in CVR Energy.

Undeterred by his failure to flush out rival bids for Clorox Co and Commercial Metals last year, Icahn had four days back urged Jack Lipinski, the CEO of CVR Energy to sell the company saying that the management was not doing enough to create value for shareholders.