Extreme Value Hedging: How Activist Hedge Fund Managers Are Taking on the World

Chapter 3

The Pack

How Activists Are Working Together (But Not Officially)

Third Point's Dan Loeb wrote a letter to Star Gas Partners LP's president and CEO, Irik Sevin, making this recommendation:

It is time for you to step down from your role as CEO and director so that you can do what you do best: retreat to your waterfront mansion in the Hamptons where you can play tennis and hobnob with your fellow socialites.

In another part of the letter, Loeb also complained that Sevin's “various acquisition and operational blunders” cost the company $570 million. Loeb also described how he tried unsuccessfully to contact Star Gas management several times through numerous phone calls. “The matter of repairing the mess you have created should be left to professional management and those that have an economic stake in the outcome,” he added.

The letter, which was written in February 2005, was neatly attached to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing known as a Schedule 13D.

Investors are required to submit Schedule 13D filings to the SEC within 10 days of owning 5 percent or more of a stock of a particular public company when they have plans to communicate some strategic options for the corporation, such as seeking to influence the control of the business, to other shareholders or company executives. At the time Loeb filed the Schedule 13D including the letter to Sevin, he owned a 6 percent stake in the energy company.

These filings are made public for anyone to read and can ...