Carl Icahn’s $2.6-bn bid for CVR Energy gets majority support

Carl Icahn is set to buy CVR Energy, after a majority of the oil refiner's stock was tendered to the activist billionaire-investor's hostile $2.6-billion bid.

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

Icahn, said investors owning 64 per cent of the company's shares have accepted his $30 per share offer.

On 16 February, Icahn launched a $30 a share bid for CVR Energy, and demanded a change in the entire board of the crude oil refiner and fertiliser company. (See: Carl Icahn launches $2.6-bn bid for CVR Energy)

Icahn's cash offer was 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.

Undeterred by his failure to flush out rival bids for Clorox Co and Commercial Metals last year, Icahn had 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.