New York Post

Trump slumpers

Investors fix on firms hurt by policies A pro-business EPA under Trump pick Scott Pruitt (left) isn’t likely to make for brisk business for pollution-fighting equipment makers.

- By CARLETON ENGLISH cenglish@nypost.com

While the market continues to reach new highs nearly every day, some investors are making it their business to go the other way and bet against firms that would be hurt by Trump Administra­tion’s policies.

Spruce Point Management, a New York-based short-selling firm, identified one such target on Monday.

“We were looking for industries that would be net losers under Trump,” Ben Axler, Spruce Point founder and chief investment officer, told The Post.

The firm’s pick is CECO Environmen­tal, an Ohiobased manufactur­er of industrial exhaust purificati­on systems. As President Trump is expected to roll back environmen­tal regulation­s, Spruce Point expects demand for CECO’s products to fall.

CECO’s stock could drop as much as 60 percent, Spruce Point said. Representa­tives from CECO did not respond to requests to comment.

The decline in demand isn’t the only thing dragging CECO down.

CECO is “one of the worstmanag­ed companies in an industry that’s going to be under pressure,” Axler said.

The company’s longtime Chief Executive Jeffrey Lang resigned on Jan. 24, which was also the same day Pres- ident Trump signed an executive order to expedite environmen­tal reviews on infrastruc­ture projects.

Shares of CECO ended the day down 8.9 percent, at $11.41, and its stock is down more than 18 percent in 2017.

But the environmen­tal industry isn’t the only one that could get hit under Trump’s presidency.

Over the past few weeks, short-seller Andrew Left of Citron Research picked four companies that may also suffer under Trump.

Express Scripts and Lannett could see their share prices fall if Trump puts pressure on rapidly rising drug prices, Left said.

Left also identified Motorola Solutions and Transdigm as two companies that could come under fire if Trump is successful in renegotiat­ing government contracts.

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