Carl Icahn’s kid ready to make a move at dad’s firm
Carl Icahn may hand over some control to get his financially successful offspring to stick closer to home.
The billionaire investor’s son, Brett Icahn, is angling for management responsibilities in order to stay on at his father’s publicly traded firm, The Post has learned.
In addition to overseeing a new pool of money, Brett, 37, wants some say at Icahn Enterprises before his 80-year-old father is ready to retire.
“Carl will be around another 20 years,” said Russell Glass, who was president of Icahn Associates before leaving to form RDG Capital Management.
Brett and investment partner David Schechter, who manage the firm’s Sargon portfolio, are advising the firm while they work to finalize the terms of a new deal, sources said. Their latest agreement expired on July 31.
The partners are poised to get a huge payday come September, when each will collect a windfall of more than $250 million, thanks to lucrative investments in Apple and Netflix, among others.
Icahn gave the partners $3 billion to manage in 2012, and agreed to give them an amount equal to 7.5 percent of the profits over a 4 percent “hurdle” rate of return.
The two have more than doubled the Sargon portfolio’s value — to roughly $7 billion as of Dec. 31, 2015.
Brett stood to reap $256 million as of that date, according to the firm’s regulatory filings. Ditto for Schechter.
Although the elder Icahn and his son declined to comment, they are making progress toward a new deal.
“Brett and Carl are continuing to look at ideas and are also negotiating,” a source said.
Neither is in a rush to invest, feeling the stock market is overheated.
“Current market valuations do not provide an opportune time to embark on large new investments,” Brett and Schechter said in an August statement.
The partners mulled starting their own hedge fund a couple of years ago but dropped the idea.
As it stands, Brett has no stake in Icahn Enterprises, sources said. Neither Brett nor Schechter has a seat on the firm’s six-member board.
The president and chief executive of Icahn Enterprises, Keith Cozza, is 37 years old — the same age as Brett.
Brett is older than his father was when the elder Icahn started his hedge fund. The then-32-year-old investor formed Icahn & Co. in 1968.
RDG’s Glass, who worked in an office next to Brett, believes the younger Icahn is ready for the top job.
“He’s probably got 30 years of work experience condensed in 15 years,” Glass said. “There was more scrutiny on him [than] anyone else at the firm.”
Brett is described by several people who have worked with him as more introverted than his larger-than-life father.
“They [Brett and Schechter] sit and read 10-Ks all day long,” said a source.