FirstEnergy nears deal to give Carl Icahn two board seats - WSJ

Reuters · 03/16/2021 17:34
FirstEnergy nears deal to give Carl Icahn two board seats - WSJ

- Electric utility company FirstEnergy Corp FE.N is nearing a deal with Carl Icahn that would give him two seats on the board and avert a proxy fight, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Two employees of the billionaire activist investor's firm, Jesse Lynn and Andrew Teno, are expected to join FirstEnergy's board and serve on committees focused on helping the company improve its compliance and settle litigation, WSJ reported citing people familiar with the matter.

FirstEnergy said in February that Icahn was looking to buy a stake in the company worth between $184 million and $920 million, citing a letter from him dated Feb. 16. nL4N2KO490

Last week, FirstEnergy named Steven Strah as its new chief, after a bribery scandal led to the ouster of its former chief executive officer, Charles Jones, and two other executives in October. nL4N2L62SM

The Akron, Ohio-based utility had fired Jones over payment of about $4 million to an entity associated with a person who subsequently became a utility regulator.

FirstEnergy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.


(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru;
Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)

((Arunima.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com;))