Seventy Seven Energy Inc (SSE)’s Stock Gains Ground Following Carl Icahn’s Stake Disclosure

Notorious activist investor and billionaire Carl Icahn has reported a new stake in Seventy Seven Energy Inc (NYSE:SSE) in a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The activist position held by Icahn amounts to 9.98% of the company’s common stock and contains 4.75 million shares. In addition, the filing revealed that Icahn has received the securities in connection with the spin-off of the company from Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), of which Icahn owns 66.45 million shares according to his latest 13F filing.

In after hours trading news yesterday, business correspondent Dominic Chu of CNBC reported that Seventy Seven Energy Inc (NYSE:SSE) had risen by close to 3.35% in after hours trading after news came out that billionaire investor Carl Icahn had “taken a 9.98 percent stake” in the recently spun-off firm. Currently the stock of Seventy Seven is up by around 1.75%.

Mr. Chu went on to analyze the development by stating that “it appears that one investor (Mr. Carl Icahn) likes the oil services side of the business.”

Mr. Chu recollected for the benefit of his viewers that Seventy Seven Energy Inc (NYSE:SSE) was spun off by Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) on 1st July this year as a standalone “oilfield services business”. Mr. Chu also went on to mention that Chesapeake has in the recent past been shedding non core business interests in order to concentrate its efforts on oil and gas exploration and production. In this context he highlighted that Chaparral Energy, Inc been spun off by the oil major. CNBC report described Mr. Icahn as the “Biggest new investor” in the recently spun off firm.

Disclosure: none