Jim Chanos is betting against Carl Icahn's latest big target
In an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday morning, short-seller Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates said that he is short shares of natural gas company Cheniere Energy.
Earlier this month, Carl Icahn disclosed a more than 8% stake in the company, and on August 21, the sides disclosed an agreement for two Icahn nominees to join the Cheniere's board.
As we noted in August, Cheniere hasn't been profitable in almost two decades.
On Wednesday CNBC, Chanos said that Cheniere is a "looming disaster" and that demand for liquid natural gas is not growing.
In pre-market trade, shares of Cheniere were down as much as 4% following Chanos' comments.
Chanos told CNBC that he came across the idea for shorting Cheniere while doing work on his bet against oil producer Royal Dutch Shell.
When asked if Chanos had been building his short before Icahn disclosed his long position in Cheniere, he said he wasn't sure, but did say "we may have crossed trades a few times," meaning that Chanos could have been borrowing shares to bet against while Icahn was accumulating stock to own.