Merger Arbitrage Mondays – April 23, 2018

  • April 23, 2018

Merger activity decreased last week with one new deal announced and two pending deals closing. You can find all the active deals listed below in our Merger Arbitrage Tool (MAT) that automatically updates itself during market hours.

There were no new deals announced in the Deals in the Works section.

Deal Statistics:

Total Number of Deals Closed in 201846
Total Number of Deals Not Completed in 20185
Total Number of Pending Deals
Cash Deals42
Stock Deals11
Stock & Cash Deals15
Collars1
Special Conditions6
Total Number of Pending Deals74
Total Deal Size$732.01 billion

New Deals:

  1. The acquisition of Farmers Capital Bank Corporation (FFKT) by WesBanco (WSBC) for $378.2 million in a cash plus stock deal. Under the terms of the agreement WesBanco will exchange a combination of its common stock and cash for Farmers common stock. Farmers shareholders will be entitled to receive 1.053 shares of WesBanco common stock and cash in the amount of $5.00 per share for each share of Farmers common stock.

Deal Updates:

  1. On April 13, 2018, WestRock Company (WRK) and KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation (KSreceived requests for additional information and documentary materials from the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with the pending acquisition of KapStone by WestRock.
  2. April 16, 2018: According to Reuters, Qualcomm (QCOM) will refile as early as Monday an application with the Chinese government to clear its $44 billion takeover of NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), giving regulators more time to decide on the deal and averting a collapse.
  3. On April 17, 2018, Rosetta Genomics (ROSG) announced that the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders that was summoned for April 17, 2018, has been adjourned to Thursday, April 26, 2018 in order to provide additional time for the solicitation of votes in favor of the proposed merger of the Company with a subsidiary of Genoptix.
  4. April 17, 2018: According to The Wall Street Journal, the chiefs of AT&T (T) and Time Warner (TWX) will take the witness stand this week to defend their proposed $85 billion combination, a key moment in a high-stakes court battle with U.S. antitrust enforcers.
  5. On April 19, 2018, Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) announced that Qualcomm and NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) at the request of the Ministry of Commerce in China (MOFCOM) have withdrawn and refiled the notice of acquisition regarding the companies’ planned combination.
  6. April 19, 2018: According to Bloomberg, Dominion Energy’s (D) takeover of Scana (SCG) is looking even less likely to happen, or less likely on the current terms, after a bill passed by South Carolina legislators late Wednesday. The state Senate voted to cut the money Scana can collect from customers for a half-finished nuclear power project the company scrapped last year.
  7. On April 19, 2018, Student Transportation (STB) announced that, at a special meeting of shareholders, its shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of a special resolution to approve the proposed plan of arrangement pursuant to which, company sponsored by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Ullico will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of STI not already owned by it.
  8. On April 19, 2018, Connecticut Water Service (CTWSsaid it had rejected a $748 million takeover bid by Eversource Energy (ES), aimed at disrupting its merger with SJW Group (SJW) agreed in March.
  9. On April 20, 2018, Russia’s antitrust regulator FAS has approved Bayer’s (BAYRY) planned takeover of Monsanto (MON).
  10. April 22, 2018: According to Bloomberg, Fresenius SE said it’s terminating the acquisition of Akorn (AKRX) after finding what it calls data-integrity issues at the U.S.-based generic-drug company.

Closed Deals:

  1. The acquisition of DST Systems (DST) by SS&C Technologies Holdings (SSNC) on April 16, 2018. It took 95 days for this deal to be completed.
  2. The acquisition of Bear State Financial (BSF) by Arvest Bank on April 20, 2018. It took 241 days for this deal to be completed.

Top 10 deals with largest spreads:

SymbolAnnounced
Date
Acquiring
Company
Closing
Price
Last
Price
Closing
Date
ProfitAnnualized
Profit
GNW10/23/2016China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. (N/A)$5.43$2.7107/01/2018100.37%530.94%
AKRX04/24/2017Fresenius Kabi (N/A)$34.00$19.7004/30/201872.59%3784.99%
RAD02/18/2018Albertsons Companies, Inc. (N/A)$2.50$1.5809/30/201858.23%132.83%
ESRX03/08/2018Cigna Corporation (CI)$90.11$73.4912/31/201822.62%32.76%
SCG01/03/2018Dominion Energy, Inc. (D)$43.71$35.9212/31/201821.68%31.39%
NXPI10/27/2016QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM)$127.50$105.1504/25/201821.26%3879.10%
GGP03/26/2018Brookfield Property Partners (BPY)$23.50$19.6407/31/201819.65%72.46%
NXTM08/07/2017Fresenius Medical Care (N/A)$30.00$25.509/30/201817.65%40.26%
STC03/16/2018Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF)$49.45$42.9806/30/201915.05%12.68%
ROSG03/05/2018Genoptix, Inc. (N/A)$0.43$0.374506/30/201814.82%79.55%

List of all pending deals:

The list of all pending deals is only available to InsideArbitrage Premium and Plus members.

Disclaimer: I hold positions in WGL Holdings (WGL), AveXis (AVXS), GGP Inc. (GGP), magicJack VocalTec (CALL), Monsanto (MON), Rite Aid (RAD) and Southcross Energy Partners (SXE). Please do your own due diligence before buying or selling any securities mentioned in this article. We do not warrant the completeness or accuracy of the content or data provided in this article.

Connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/asifsuria or follow me on Twitter@asifsuria