Merger Arbitrage Mondays – Tax Preparation Company Gets Into The Vitamins Business

  • August 12, 2019

Merger activity increased last week with seven new deals announced and four 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.

In the context of the merger of Sprint with T-Mobile, it was interesting to see a large insider purchase by the Chairman of DISH Network (DISH) that we discussed here yesterday.

There were five new deals announced in the Deals in the Works section.

Deal Statistics:

Total Number of Deals Closed in 2019120
Total Number of Deals Not Completed in 20198
Total Number of Pending Deals
Cash Deals45
Stock Deals15
Stock & Cash Deals14
Special Conditions3
Total Number of Pending Deals77
Total Deal Size$1.12 trillion

New Deals:

  1. The acquisition of Gannett (GCI) by New Media Investment Group (NEWM) for $1.94 billion in an all stock deal.Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, shareholders of Gannett will receive $6.25 in cash and 0.5427 of a New Media share for each Gannett share they hold. We added GCI as a potential deal to the Deals in the Works section on May 30, 2019 and the price after the news of the potential deal came out was $7.6.
  2. The acquisition of Cambrex Corporation (CBM) by an affiliate of the Permira funds for $2.4 billion or $60.00 per share in cash.
  3. The acquisition of Corindus Vascular Robotics (CVRS) by Siemens Healthineers AG for $1.1 billion or $4.28 per share in cash.
  4. The acquisition of Vitamin Shoppe (VSI) by Liberty Tax (TAXA) for $208 million or $6.50 per share in cash. Liberty Tax also acquired Buddy’s Home Furnishings and plans to change its name to Franchise Group, Inc in Q3 or Q4 of 2019 to more accurately reflect its new business model.
  5. The acquisition of Avedro (AVDR) by Glaukos Corporation (GKOS) for $386.92 million in an all stock deal. Under the terms of the merger agreement, for each share of Avedro common stock they own, Avedro shareholders will receive an exchange ratio equivalent of 0.365 shares of Glaukos stock.
  6. The acquisition of Wesco Aircraft Holdings (WAIR) by an affiliate of Platinum Equity for $1.9 billion or $11.05 per share in cash.
  7. The acquisition of Two River Bancorp (TRCB) by OceanFirst Financial (OCFC) for $182.8 million in a cash plus stock deal. Under the terms of the merger agreement, upon completion of the merger, shareholders of Two River will be entitled to receive 0.6663 shares of OceanFirst common stock and $5.375 in cash for each outstanding share of Two River common stock.

Deal Updates:

  1. On August 6, 2019, Occidental Petroleum (OXYsold $13 billion of debt to help finance its acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum (APC) after receiving over $75 billion in orders for the deal at the peak.
  2. On August 8, 2019, EMC Insurance Group (EMCI) announced that the EMCI Special Meeting of Shareholders to vote on the transaction with Employers Mutual Casualty Company is scheduled to take place on September 18, 2019.

Closed Deals:

  1. The acquisition of Barnes & Noble  (BKS) by funds advised by Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited on August 7, 2019. It took 61 days for this deal to be completed.
  2. The acquisition of TheStreet  (TST) by TheMaven on August 8, 2019. It took 57 days for this deal to be completed.
  3. The acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation  (APC) by Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) on August 8, 2019. It took 91 days for this deal to be completed.
  4. The acquisition of Aerohive Networks  (HIVE) by Extreme Networks (EXTR) on August 9, 2019. It took 44 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
STC03/19/2018Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF)$53.30$37.0909/30/201943.71%325.60%
PACB11/01/2018Illumina, Inc. (ILMN)$8.00$5.6812/31/201940.85%105.73%
GNW10/23/2016China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. (N/A)$5.43$3.9211/30/201938.52%127.82%
S04/29/2018T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS)$7.95$6.8108/31/201916.75%321.71%
MLNX03/11/2019NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA)$125.00$107.5812/31/201916.19%41.92%
OHAI08/01/2019Portman Ridge Finance Corporation (PTMN)$1.46$1.2712/31/201914.96%38.73%
AVP05/22/2019Natura Cosméticos S.A. (NATU3.SA)$5.02$4.401/31/202013.99%29.68%
ONCE02/25/2019Roche Holding AG (RHHBY)$114.50$100.8304/30/202013.56%18.89%
AGN06/25/2019AbbVie Inc. (ABBV)$177.09$159.8403/31/202010.79%16.98%

List of all pending deals:

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

Disclaimer: I hold long positions in Mellanox Technologies (MLNX), Pacific Biosciences of California (PACB), Celgene (CELG), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) and Finisar (FNSR). 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.

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