By Lawrence Delevingne
NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Orange Capital, the activist
hedge fund firm led by New York-based real estate investment
manager Daniel Lewis, is shutting down after a year of poor
performance, according to people familiar with the situation.
Its main hedge fund was down 7.4 percent net of fees in 2015
through November, according to investor information seen by
Reuters. Performance for December and January was not available.
A group of stocks in Orange's portfolio, worth about $1.3
billion as of September 30, according to a public filing,
declined substantially over 2015.
Bellatrix Exploration BXE.TO , a Canadian oil and gas
company where Lewis is a director and had pushed for change, saw
its stock drop about 60 percent. NorthStar Asset Management
Group NSAM.N , a New York-based real estate and investment
manager, fell 46 percent. And Amaya Inc. AYA.TO , a Canadian
entertainment technology company, declined nearly 40 percent.
Lewis was not immediately available for comment. A spokesman
for Bellatrix declined to comment and InnVest Real Estate
Investment Trust, another Canadian company that Lewis is a
director of, did not respond to a request for comment.
Orange, co-founded by Russell Hoffman, its president, had
otherwise produced strong returns. Its main fund averaged annual
returns of 9.7 percent since inception in mid-2005. That
compares to a 5.15 percent gain over the same period by the
Absolute Return Event Driven Index, which tracks similar funds.
The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.