When on Monday it seemed the whole world was selling oil, a familiar name was buying: Carl Icahn.
"We made some money on it," Icahn said in an interview Friday with Bloomberg Television. "We did get a fair amount."
The billionaire raider-turned-activist took advantage of the historic collapse in crude futures to supply his Midwestern refiner, CVR Energy Inc. He said CVR tried to purchase 1 million to 2 million barrels of oil when prices went negative in a technical quirk of futures trading that temporarily forced sellers to pay to have contracts taken off their hands.
It's a role Icahn, a wily investor with gifted timing, has played before. In one of his more legendary trades, Icahn left Donald Trump's election-night victory party in November 2016 to buy $1 billion of U.S. equity futures as stocks slumped in the early hours of the morning.
Monday presented a similarly rare opportunity. With oil markets oversupplied and running out of storage space, crude for May delivery fell below zero and began an unprecedented plunge to less than minus $40 a barrel.
"You'll never see that again in history," Icahn said.
Business on 04/25/2020