Icahn Enterprises is new moniker for remade WestPoint parent

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 8/9/2007 2:51:00 PM

New York – One day after reporting second-quarter results for American Real Estate Partners (AREP), and having just completed a merger with financier Carl Icahn’s major investment business, the company’s management said it will henceforth operate as Icahn Enterprises, with Icahn serving as chairman – and the nature of the company altered strongly toward the “money management business,” as Icahn said on today’s earnings call.

With hedge fund asset management as the main line of business – the casino and the oil and gas holdings have or are being sold off – that leaves real estate and home fashion as minor interests. However, the company said it remains confident that WestPoint Home “will end 2007 as a stronger company.”

By slashing 100 jobs, closing facilities in Georgia and Alabama, and shifting production to such low-cost territories as Bahrain and Pakistan, WestPoint has begun to show some expense reduction. Icahn’s executive team reported that SG&A was reduced to $34.3 million for the second quarter, down from nearly $40 million one year ago.

The company noted that WestPoint ended the quarter with $115.4 million of unrestricted cash and a $250 million working capital facility.

As a whole, Icahn Enterprises now manages about $7 billion in funds, including $1.8 billion of Icahn’s own capital.