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An oil pump jack pumps oil in a field near Calgary, Alberta, July 21, 2014.TODD KOROL/Reuters

Orange Capital LLC's managing partner has resigned as a director of Calgary-based Bellatrix Exploration Ltd. following Orange's decision to wind up its investment fund.

Daniel Lewis, the activist hedge fund's founder, is stepping down as a director of Bellatrix as he studies what to do with the interest in the company, whose shares are down about 80 per cent since Orange bought a position in the summer of 2014 as oil prices have collapsed.

Orange said this month that it has decided to shut down. The move follows a year of reported poor performance. In December, Orange's holdings in Bellatrix comprised 17 per cent of Bellatrix's shares and $15-million (U.S.) of its 8.5 per cent senior unsecured notes.

Jeremy McCrea, an analyst at Raymond James, said the dissolution of some funds invested in energy companies in recent months has increased volatility in Canadian energy stocks as crude prices have squelched financial returns and heaped pressure on share prices.

Bellatrix and Orange had said in early December that they had terminated their year-old standstill agreement on forcing major strategic changes on the energy company. The investor's entrance into the company has not prevented a steep drop in the shares, an experience mirroring those of other activists in the Canadian oil patch. Weakening markets have kept would-be buyers of assets and entire companies on the sidelines fearing markets could fall further.

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Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 28/03/24 7:00pm EDT.

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Orange ADR
+0.94%11.77

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