Carl Icahn on Tuesday announced a sizeable stake in Southwest Gas, and the activist investor is pushing the Las Vegas-based utility company to drop its rumored acquisition of natural gas company Questar Pipeline.
"During the past few years, management of SWX has made a number of egregious errors at the expense of shareholders. However, the purchase of Questar you are currently being rumored to make at the price you are willing to pay will make all past errors pale in comparison," Icahn wrote in a letter to Southwest's board of directors made public Tuesday. "The purchase will result in serious diminution of shareholder value."
Shares of Southwest climbed more than 7% in afternoon trading Tuesday. In his letter, Icahn added the gas company didn't respond to his inquiry on this matter.