There’s a whole lot of shakin’ up going on at Pirate Capital. Half of its investment staff - including four analysts and a money manager - either walked the plank or left on their own. The departures come less than a month after the Securities and Exchange Commission said it was looking into Pirate’s alleged failure to properly disclose change in its holdings in OSI Restaurant Partners. Thomas Hudson, founder of the Norwalk, Conn.-based hedge fund, is hoping to navigate into a sea of greater tranquility after the firm sailed into troubled waters this year. Hudson wrote in a letter to investors dated Sept. 28 that the firm’s four funds will be closed to new investors, effective Oct. 1. And he had this to say, “I fully intend to refocus, streamline and navigate the portfolio back to the positive performance I began the firm with.” He added that he has “no intention of liquidating positions or closing the firm.” Does that mean Pirate’s activism will go into dry-dock? Overall returns this year are about 3%, lagging other activist hedge funds that stand at 7%. Observers says Pirate’s woes may be traced to a flood of money in too short a time without enough good activist investments to place it in. The firm finished 2005 with $930 million AUM; that figure nearly doubled six months later. Pirate, according to the New York Times, had some winners, like investments in a lodging company were up about 60% at the midway point of 2006, but it was also dogged by some other activist investments that lost between 23% and 73% during the same period.
