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We are introducing a new service on InsideArbitrage called Merger Arbitrage Mondays to highlight merger arbitrage opportunities that exist in acquisitions that are yet to be completed. If you are not familiar with merger or risk arbitrage, you can read about it in a section of the March 2009 investment newsletter titled Merger Arbitrage and the Pfizer-Wyeth Deal. That deal delivered gains of 27.34% including dividends over a 7.5 month period. On an annualized basis gains were 43.77%.
I currently have a position in network equipment maker 3Com (COMS) in my personal portfolio as a merger arbitrage play on Hewlett Packard (HPQ) completing the acquisition of 3Com at some point during the first half of 2010. As mentioned in this tweet, the spread offered by this deal in early February when I sent the tweet was 5.89% or 14.725% annualized even if the deal closed as late as 6/30/2010. The spread has narrowed considerably since then as 3Com’s stock has risen to $7.74 and is now very close to the $7.90 a share that HP has offered to acquire 3Com.
The goal of Merger Arbitrage Mondays is to present all the merger opportunities out there along with their calculated absolute returns and annualized returns. We started working on this at the start of this year and hence deals announced prior to 1/1/2010 (like the HP-3COM deal) are not included in the table below. Once we build out this Merger Arbitrage service with features like an automatically updating portfolio of Merger Arbitrage opportunities accessible at any time, we will roll it into the Special Reports service to provide better value for subscribers who now only get reports once a quarter. Until then Merger Arbitrage Mondays will be free for everyone.
| Symbol | Announced Date | Acquiring Company | Closing Value | Closing Price | Last Price | Closing Date | Profit | Annualized Profit | |
| + | SSE | 2/23/2010 | Naugatuck Valley Financial Corp | $19.5 million | $7.25 | $6.56 | 8/16/10 | 10.52% | 25.43% |
| + | SWWC | 3/3/2010 | Institutional Investors | $275 million | $11.00 | $10.44 | 5/17/10 | 5.36% | 31.58% |
| + | SII | 2/19/2010 | Schlumberger | $7.5 billion | $45.84 | $43.59 | 9/30/10 | 5.16% | 9.66% |
| + | PINN | 2/24/2010 | Investor Group lead by Scotia Waterous (USA) | $11 million | $0.34 | $0.33 | 5/17/10 | 3.03% | 17.84% |
| + | BNE | 2/24/2010 | RR Donnelley | $481 million | $11.50 | $11.25 | 9/30/10 | 2.22% | 4.16% |
| + | MIL | 3/1/2010 | Merck | $6 billion | $107.00 | $105.26 | 9/30/10 | 1.65% | 3.09% |
| + | ADG | 1/19/2010 | Chemring Group Plc | $59 million | $7.25 | $7.16 | 4/19/10 | 1.26% | 13.49% |
| + | SKIL | 2/12/2010 | consortium of private equity funds | $1.1 billion | $10.80 | $10.71 | 5/31/10 | 0.84% | 4.04% |
| + | LGN | 1/22/2010 | Lone Star Funds | $270 million | $2.50 | $2.48 | 5/17/10 | 0.81% | 4.75% |
| + | IUSA | 3/8/2010 | CCMP | $460 million | $8.00 | $7.94 | 6/30/10 | 0.76% | 2.63% |
| + | RISK | 3/1/2010 | MSCI | $1.55 billion | $22.40 | $22.25 | 7/16/10 | 0.67% | 2.03% |
| + | ZRBA | 1/11/2010 | Woodstream Corp | $23 million | $9.00 | $8.95 | 3/31/10 | 0.56% | 12.74% |
| + | CITP | 2/2/2010 | Manpower | $375.8 million | $17.65 | $17.56 | 4/2/10 | 0.51% | 11.00% |
| + | CFL | 1/18/2010 | Tyco International | $2.9 billion | $42.50 | $42.30 | 6/26/10 | 0.47% | 1.71% |
| + | KTII | 1/11/2010 | Hillenbrand Inc Common Stock | $435 million | $150.00 | $149.66 | 3/31/10 | 0.23% | 5.18% |
| + | TRA | 3/12/2010 | CF Industries Holdings, Inc. | more than $4.6 billion | $46.37 | $46.33 | 4/12/10 | 0.08% | 1.11% |
| + | BARE | 1/14/2010 | Shiseido | $1.7 billion | $18.20 | $18.19 | 3/31/10 | 0.05% | 1.25% |
| + | FACT | 3/9/2010 | Abbot | $450 million | $27.00 | $27.01 | 5/17/10 | -0.04% | -0.22% |
| + | PRPX | 2/17/2010 | L.B. Foster Co. | $112 million | $11.71 | $11.74 | 6/30/10 | -0.26% | -0.89% |
| + | HDIX | 2/3/2010 | Nipro Corporation | $215 million | $11.50 | $11.53 | 3/31/10 | -0.26% | -5.94% |
| + | ZNT | 2/18/2010 | Fairfax Financial Holdings | $I.4 billion | $38.00 | $38.25 | 5/17/10 | -0.65% | -3.85% |
| + | RCNI | 3/5/2010 | Abry | $1.2 billion | $15.00 | $15.32 | 9/30/10 | -2.09% | -3.91% |
| + | CKR | 3/1/2010 | Thomas H. Lee | $928 million | $11.05 | $11.47 | 5/17/10 | -3.66% | -21.56% |
| + | PIII | 2/18/2010 | Lineage | $16.7 million | $5.26 | $5.75 | 5/17/10 | -8.52% | -50.17% |
| + | JSDA | 3/9/2010 | Reeds Inc. | $9.7 million | $0.40 | $0.56 | -28.57% | ||
| + | AYE | 2/11/2010 | FirstEnergy | $8.5 billion | $15.49 | $23.28 | 3/31/11 | -33.46% | -32.48% |
| + | CCE | 2/25/2010 | The Coca-Cola Company | $12.3 billion | $27.01 | 10/1/2010 | |||
Please note that Merger Arbitrage is also referred to as Risk Arbitrage for a reason. These deals do fall apart from time to time and there is no free lunch while investing. We have attempted to reduce the amount of work you have to do to identify interesting deals but we strongly recommend doing your own research and consulting with your broker/investment adviser before taking any action. We do not warrant the completeness or accuracy of the content or data provided in this Merger Arbitrage service.