Larry Robbins Takes Stake in Company That Agreed to Carl Icahn Deal

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Mar 24, 2015
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Larry Robbins (Trades, Portfolio), the manager of Glenview Capital who made headlines last year for beating out almost every other hedge fund’s returns, has amassed a stake in a new company, Manitowoc Co. (MTW, Financial).

According to GuruFocus Real Time Picks, the position consists of 8,614,197 shares of the company, giving him 6.34% interest.

Manitowoc is a more than century-old shipbuilding and ship-repair company founded in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The company has a $2.95 billion market cap and its shares traded around $21.47 on Monday after declining almost 3% year to date.

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On March 9, Manitowoc announced it would accept some of the governance changes of Carl Icahn (Trades, Portfolio), a large shareholder. It had previously announced that it would follow through on his plan to separate its cranes and foodservice businesses into two separately traded companies to take effect in the first quarter of 2016.

Carl Icahn (Trades, Portfolio) trading history:

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“We believe the governance details announced today are in the best interests of the company, Manitowoc shareholders, and future investors in the standalone Foodservice entity," said Glen Tellock, Manitowoc chairman and CEO, in the press release. "We also welcome the perspective of Mr. Icahn’s representatives to the board of directors and believe they will add value. We look forward to working with them constructively. We are highly focused on executing our strategic plan, delivering on our goals, and working towards the successful separation of our Cranes and Foodservice businesses, which is expected in the first quarter of 2016,”

Icahn also said: “We applaud the ability of Manitowoc’s board of directors and management to recognize the importance of separating the companies as well as the importance of good corporate governance. In particular, I would like to thank Glen Tellock, chairman and CEO of Manitowoc, for standing behind his commitment to shareholders. We strongly believe that the separation of Manitowoc’s core businesses will create two stronger companies and that, in combination with improved corporate governance, shareholder value will be greatly enhanced by this agreement.”

In the fourth quarter, Manitowoc reported sales of $1.0 billion, a 6.1% decrease from $1.1 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Net earnings were $33.6 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, compared to $20.9 million, or $0.15 per diluted share a year ago.

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Manitowoc has a P/E ratio of 20.7 and P/B ratio of 3.6.

Other gurus who purchased the stock in the fourth quarter include Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) and Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio).

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