(Barron’s) Billionaire Carl Icahn is coming off another poor investment year as a nearly $6 billion hedge fund that he oversees suffered a loss of 20.3% in 2016 after a decline of 18% in 2015, according to a disclosure in a regulatory filing in conjunction with a bond deal and rights offering being made by Icahn Enterprises (ticker: IEP), a publicly traded limited partnership that is controlled by Icahn.
The weak 2016 performance reflected Icahn’s bearish stance as the fund had a sizable short position in the U.S. equity market that hurt results as the S&P 500 index gained almost 10% last year. The Icahn fund had a net short position of 138% at the end of the third quarter—fourth quarter positioning has not yet been disclosed.
