Activist investor Carl Icahn acquired 6.8 million common shares of class="mandelbrot_refrag">Fannie Mae and 5.7 million common shares of class="mandelbrot_refrag">Freddie Mac from Fairholme Funds, a court filing showed Tuesday.
_0">Icahn, a billionaire investor known for taking big stakes in companies and pushing for management change, bought the shares in the major mortgage financiers in March, the filing showed.
As of March 31, Fairholme owned a 1.65 percent stake in class="mandelbrot_refrag">Fannie Mae and a 2.64 percent stake in class="mandelbrot_refrag">Freddie Mac, according to Thomson Reuters data. Mutual fund manager Bruce Berkowitz is the founder of Fairholme Capital Management.
Regulators took control of Fannie and Freddie, which own or guarantee about 60 percent of all U.S. home loans, in 2008 after losses stemming from subprime mortgage investments pushed them to the brink of insolvency.
Both companies are operating under conservatorship while Congress considers an overhaul of the mortgage-finance system. The Senate is considering taking action to wind down the two taxpayer-owned companies, but the measure faces an uncertain future.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac posted profits of $5.3 billion and $4.0 billion respectively for the three months ended March 31.
(Reporting by Sam Forgione; Editing by James Dalgleish and Dan Grebler)