Loeb's Third Point fund moves into Chesapeake

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC hedge fund told investors it recently amassed a big position in embattled natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp , an investor source said.

The hedge fund, in a June email alert to investors, listed Chesapeake as its fourth largest position, according to the source and copy of the email reviewed by Reuters.

Loeb, a well-known activist investor, did not disclose if he was net long or short Chesapeake. A person familiar with Third Point who did not want to identified said the hedge fund could have acquired its position through a combination of buying shares, debt and derivatives.

A short position is a bet a stock or bond will decline in price.

Third Point's big move into Chesapeake comes at a time when Aubrey McClendon, the company's chief executive officer, has come under fire for taking out more than $1.3 billion in personal loans from a firm that also does business with Chesapeake. The loans were first disclosed by Reuters.

Chesapeake recently restructured its board, giving more power to activist investors Carl Icahn and O. Mason Hawkins of Southeastern Asset Management, who are two of the energy company's largest shareholders.

Loeb did not respond to an email seeking comment about his hedge fund's move into Chesapeake, which appears to have occurred in the past month.

In the alert to investors, Third Point also reported other top positions as Yahoo Inc , Delphi Automotive , gold, and Apple Inc . An investor source said Loeb is believed to be "long" in all of the companies.

Loeb's Ultra Fund was up about 4.5 percent for the year to date as of the end of June.

Loeb, known for his sharp tongue and acerbic letters to executives who are not performing up to his standards, recently has battled with Yahoo. He won a victory by picking up three board seats, including one for himself. Loeb was also successful in getting former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson ousted after discovering that Thompson, who had been on the job only for a few months, had falsified his resume.

Although Loeb has not disclosed his intentions for Chesapeake, Noster Capital's Pedro Noronha, who was among the first to publicly call for the board to terminate its chief executive officer, said he welcomed Third Point's involvement.

Icahn and Hawkins, in recent speaking engagements, have said they still believe Chesapeake is undervalued.

In a CNBC interview on Monday, Icahn said that shareholders have taken control of the company and that it can fill its income gap by cutting costs.

"I think natural gas in the next few years is going to go quite a bit higher, and Chesapeake will be there to take advantage of it... I would not sell it at all now," Icahn said.

At the Morningstar Investment Conference in Chicago on June 21, Hawkins, the chairman and chief executive officer of Southeastern Asset Management, highlighted the company's potential.

"Chesapeake is at the full position to have the best assets, so shame on us if we don't produce a lot of earnings and a lot of cash flow," Hawkins said.

Hawkins also said he was "thrilled" that former ConocoPhillips chairman Archie Dunham agreed to become Chesapeake's new chairman, after McClendon was stripped of the title. (Reporting by Sam Forgione and Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Matthew Goldstein and Tim Dobbyn)