Icahn Enterprises on Friday said it would cut its dividend payout months after short seller Hindenburg Research accused the investment firm of operating a "Ponzi-like" structure to pay dividends.
Shares of Icahn Enterprises fell 26% in premarket trading. Hindenburg said it remained short on the company.
The investment firm, owned by Carl Icahn, said it would distribute $1 per depositary unit to its investors for the second quarter, lower than its usual payout of $2 per unit.
Icahn has previously denied the allegations made in Hindenburg's report that has landed the famed activist investor in hot waters. Known for his high-profile corporate battles, Icahn has rarely faced a challenge of the scale posed by the short seller's attack.
The billionaire investor last month disclosed he had restructured $3.7 billion in personal loans to remove a link between his obligation to post collateral and his holding company's share price, in a bid to undo the damage done by Hindenburg.
The investment company took another jab at the short seller on Friday.
"We do not intend to let a misleading Hindenburg report interfere with this practice (of distributing dividends)," Icahn Enterprises said in a statement.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Milla Nissi)
