Merger Arbitrage Mondays – March 22, 2010

  • March 21, 2010

Last week was very active with new mergers and acquisitions announced, rumors of deals for some very well know names like Harley-Davidson (HOG) and Polycom (PLCM) and the successful completion of two acquisitions. Polycom, widely recognized for its Klingon starship shaped conference phones, had an interesting ride last week with the stock jumping more than 10% from Tuesday’s close of $30.44 to an intraday high of $34.14 on Wednesday on nearly 10 times average daily volume on speculation that investment firm Apax Partners has been in negotiations with the company since November to take it private at $37 per share. A couple of valuation related downgrades later, oddly enough the stock closed the week at $31.34, just a little higher from where it had started the week.

InsideArbitrage pick Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA) and Pfizer (PFE) also duked it out for German generic drug manufacturer Ratiopharm and it looks like Teva won this $5 billion round, much to the delight of Teva investors who bid the stock up 3% last week. Since we don’t include international deals or rumors in the Merger Arbitrage Mondays list, you will not see these deals in the table below. You will however find the newly announced acquisitions of Orchard Enterprises (ORCD), Chordiant Software (CHRD), Sport Supply Group (RBI) and Sterling Banks (STBK). The acquisitions of Bare Escentuals (BARE) and Home Diagnostics (HDIX) completed last week and hence they have been removed from the Merger Arbitrage list below.

SymbolAnnounced

Date

Acquiring CompanyClosing

Value

Closing

Price

Last

Price

Closing

Date

ProfitAnnualized

Profit

+AYE2/11/2010FirstEnergy$8.5 billion26.5323.443/31/201113.2%13.05%
+SSE2/23/2010Naugatuck Valley Financial Corp$19.5 million7.256.528/16/201011.20%28.38%
+STBK3/18/2010Roma Financial Corp$14.7 million2.522.38/16/20109.57%24.25%
+PINN2/24/2010Investor Group lead by Scotia Waterous (USA)$11 million0.340.32015/17/20106.22%41.26%
+SII2/19/2010Schlumberger$7.5 billion45.8443.319/30/20105.84%11.34%
+SWWC3/3/2010Institutional Investors$275 million1110.55/17/20104.76%31.60%
+ORCD3/16/2010eMusic$12.77 million2.0528/16/20102.50%6.34%
+BNE2/24/2010RR Donnelley$481 million11.511.239/30/20102.40%4.67%
+MIL3/1/2010Merck$6 billion107105.259/30/20101.66%3.23%
+TRA3/12/2010CF Industries Holdings, Inc.$4.7 billion46.3745.74/12/20101.47%26.76%
+SKIL2/12/2010consortium of private equity funds$1.1 billion10.810.655/31/20101.41%7.45%
+MAM3/12/2010Emera Inc.$75.7 million4544.512/31/20101.12%1.47%
+ZRBA1/11/2010Woodstream Corp$23 million98.913/31/20101.01%40.97%
+IUSA3/8/2010CCMP$460 million87.936/30/20100.88%3.29%
+CITP2/2/2010Manpower$375.8 million17.6517.54/2/20100.86%31.29%
+CFL1/18/2010Tyco International$2.9 billion42.542.166/26/20100.81%3.13%
+RISK3/1/2010MSCI$1.55 billion22.422.267/16/20100.63%2.01%
+ADG1/19/2010Chemring Group Plc$59 million7.257.224/19/20100.42%
+PRPX2/17/2010L.B. Foster Co.$112 million11.7111.676/30/20100.34%1.28%
+KTII1/11/2010Hillenbrand Inc Common Stock$435 million150149.893/31/20100.07%2.98%
+FACT3/9/2010Abbot$450 million2727.015/17/2010-0.04%-0.25%
+RBI3/15/2010affiliate of Oncap Management Partners L.P.13.5513.568/16/2010-0.07%-0.19%
+RCNI3/5/2010Abry$1.2 billion1515.089/30/2010-0.53%-1.03%
+ZNT2/18/2010Fairfax Financial Holdings$I.4 billion3838.345/17/2010-0.89%-5.89%
+CHRD3/15/2010Pegasystems$161.5 million55.075/17/2010-1.38%-9.16%
+LGN1/22/2010Lone Star Funds$270 million2.52.545/17/2010-1.57%-10.45%
+CKR3/1/2010Thomas H. Lee$928 million11.0511.415/17/2010-3.16%-20.94%
+PIII2/18/2010Lineage$16.7 million5.265.815/17/2010-9.47%-62.82%
+JSDA3/9/2010Reeds Inc.$9.7 million0.40.54-25.93%0.24%
+CCE2/25/2010The Coca-Cola Company$12.3 billion26.9610/1/2010