Falcone's Harbinger Dumps Calpine (CPN) Shares, Adds Options

In an amended 13D filed with the SEC, Philip Falcone's hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners is now showing a 2.21% ownership stake in Calpine (CPN) with 10,000,000 shares. The filing was made due to activity on March 3rd, 2010 and the fine print reads, "This amount consists of Shares that the Reporting Person may be entitled to obtain upon the exercise of options." Digging into the filing further, we see that Harbinger has acquired options that are exercisable into shares within 60 days for their Master & Special Situations funds, as they bought $18,000 worth of options. This paints a vastly different picture from what we last saw when we looked at Harbinger's portfolio. After having a dismal 2008, Harbinger had a solid showing last year as they finished up 46.5% as we noted in our 2009 hedge fund performance numbers post.

These transactions comes after a wave of selling as Falcone's fund was disposing of CPN shares throughout January. We now also see that Harbinger's Master Fund sold 18,310,600 Calpine shares on March 3rd at a price of $10.75 per share. Their Special Situations Fund sold 9,155,300 shares at the same price on the same date. Then, interestingly enough, Harbinger purchased the above referenced options on the same day.

Here is a graphical breakdown of their recent transactions in Calpine:

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In conclusion, they dumped a bunch of shares and then picked up options. So, they're definitely up to something here and we'll continue to watch the developments. For more from Philip Falcone's hedge fund, check out our coverage of Harbinger's portfolio.

Taken from Google Finance, Calpine is "a wholesale power company in the United States. Calpine owns and operates natural gas-fired and geothermal power plants in North America and has a presence in power markets in the United States. Its portfolio consists of two types of power generation technologies: natural gas-fired combustion turbines, which are combined-cycle plants, and renewable geothermal conventional steam turbines."

Hedge Fund Harbinger Dumps More Calpine (CPN)

Philip Falcone's hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners has filed two form 4's and an amended 13D with the SEC recently to detail changes to their position in Calpine (CPN). Simply put, they've sold a lot of shares and below you'll find screenshots of the transactions taken directly from the SEC filings:

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Additionally:

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After all was said and done, it appears that Falcone's hedge fund still owns over 14 million shares of CPN. We also want to highlight the purpose of the transaction as identified on their amended 13D filing. According to the amendment, "On December 8, 2009 and December 9, 2009, Kelson Investments, S.ar.l., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of the Master Fund and Special Fund ("Kelson Sarl"), sold 8.4 million and 882,248 shares, respectively. The proceeds of these sales will be used to pay off a loan made to Kelson Canada, Inc., an affiliate of Kelson Sarl and wholly owned subsidiary of the Master Fund and Special Fund. These shares were pledged as collateral for the Loan."

These sales come after Harbinger has recently sold Calpine shares (CPN), and executed an offering back in September. In terms of additional portfolio activity, Harbinger has been quite busy making SEC filings as of late and they recently adjusted two positions as well. Philip Falcone runs his $6 billion hedge fund with a focus both on distressed and equity plays and often takes concentrated positions in companies. For even more of their recent position adjustments, we previously penned a post detailing a portfolio update too.

Taken from Google Finance, Calpine is "an independent wholesale power generation company engaged in the ownership and operation of natural gas-fired and geothermal power plants in North America. The Company sells wholesale power, steam, capacity, renewable energy credits and ancillary services to its customers, including industrial companies, retail power providers, utilities, municipalities, independent electric system operators, marketers and others. The Company’s portfolio comprises two types of power generation technologies: natural gas-fired combustion turbines (primarily combined-cycle) and renewable geothermal conventional steam turbines."