Merger activity remained steady last week with three new deals announced and two deals closing but there was a lot of volatility especially earlier in the week that caused spreads to expand significantly at some point.
Two of the three new deals announced last week were in the pharmaceutical sector. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Correvio Pharma is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on commercializing hospital drugs. The company agreed to be acquired by ADVANZ PHARMA, a pharmaceutical company with a diverse portfolio of 200 niche medications. ADVANZ PHARMA was formerly known as Concordia International.
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals (TTPH) is a biopharmaceutical company that develops various antibiotics for the treatment of serious and life-threatening multidrug-resistant infections. The company agreed to be acquired by AcelRx Pharmaceuticals (ACRX) in an all stock deal. The deal also includes one contingent value right (CVR), which would entitle the holders to receive aggregate payments of up to $12.5 million for the achievement of future XERAVA™ net sales milestones starting in 2021. We are classifying this deal as a “special conditions” type of deal in our Merger Arbitrage Tool (MAT) on account of the CVR.
You can find all the active deals listed below in our Merger Arbitrage Tool (MAT) that automatically updates itself during market hours.
There were two new deals announced in the Deals in the Works section last week.
Weekly Spread Changes
The table below shows weekly spread changes between March 13, 2020 and March 20, 2020.
Symbol | Quote | Acquiring Company | Acquiring Company Quote | Current Spread | Last Week Spread | Spread Change Weekly | Deal Type |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SMRT | 0.28 | Kingswood Capital Management, L.P. (N/A) | 0.00 | 221.43% | 34.33% | 187.10% | All Cash |
CDOR | 5.04 | NexPoint Hospitality Trust (N/A) | 120.24% | 44.35% | 75.89% | All Cash | |
CETV | 2.48 | PPF Group N.V. (N/A) | 84.68% | 14.21% | 70.47% | All Cash | |
CZR | 5.45 | Eldorado Resorts, Inc. (ERI) | 8.82 | 68.68% | 18.23% | 50.45% | Cash Plus Stock |
YTRA | 1.05 | Ebix, Inc. (EBIX) | 13.5 | 28.57% | -18.55% | 47.12% | All Stock |
QUMU | 1.45 | Synacor, Inc. (SYNC) | 0.9 | -0.07% | 10.27% | -10.34% | All Stock |
MFSF | 27.54 | Northwest Bancshares, Inc. (NWBI) | 10.71 | -6.67% | 4.46% | -11.13% | All Stock |
WEBK | 26.5 | Cambridge Bancorp (CATC) | 49.7 | 8.78% | 20.30% | -11.52% | All Stock |
TIVO | 6.19 | Xperi Corporation (XPER) | 11.34 | -16.64% | 2.26% | -18.90% | All Stock |
TTPH | 0.736 | AcelRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACRX) | 0.84 | -28.06% | 0.00% | -28.06% | All Stock |
As the COVID-19 outbreak escalates globally, we saw significant changes in the spreads for the active deals in our table. Companies belonging to the consumer discretionary sector, like Stein Mart (SMRT), Tiffany & Co (TIF) and Caesars Entertainment Corporation (CZR) had to shut down stores and operations in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Tiffany situation was interesting with the spread on the merger jumping over 20% early last week before settling lower towards the end of the week. There was some chatter about the drop in Tiffany being related to Citadel Investment unwinding its merger arbitrage position after the head of its merger arbitrage desk, Maulin Shah, leaving the company following a bad bet on the Sprint – T-Mobile merger. There was also some chatter about LVMH approaching Tiffany’s board to acquire shares on the open market at a discount, which frankly felt far fetched.
At a current spread of 7.6% or 27.82% annualized if the deal closes by the end of Q2, Tiffany is worth exploring further. These are trying times to be a brick-and-mortar retailer and it remains to be seen if LVMH will remain committed to the deal if this COVID-19 situation does not resolve itself by the end of Q2 2020.
Deal Statistics:
Total Number of Deals Closed in 2020 | 35 |
Total Number of Deals Not Completed in 2020 | 3 |
Total Number of Pending Deals | |
Cash Deals | 40 |
Stock Deals | 27 |
Stock & Cash Deals | 5 |
Special Conditions | 3 |
Total Number of Pending Deals | 75 |
Aggregate Deal Consideration | $538.81 billion |
New Deals:
Deal Updates:
Closed Deals:
Top 10 deals with largest spreads:
Symbol | Announced Date | Acquiring Company | Closing Price | Last Price | Closing Date | Profit | Annualized Profit |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SMRT | 01/31/2020 | Kingswood Capital Management, L.P. (N/A) | $0.90 | $0.2800 | 06/30/2020 | 221.43% | 808.21% |
CDOR | 07/22/2019 | NexPoint Hospitality Trust (N/A) | $11.10 | $5.04 | 03/23/2020 | 120.24% | 43886.90% |
CETV | 10/27/2019 | PPF Group N.V. (N/A) | $4.58 | $2.48 | 06/30/2020 | 84.68% | 309.07% |
CZR | 06/24/2019 | Eldorado Resorts, Inc. (ERI) | $9.19 | $5.45 | 06/30/2020 | 68.68% | 250.67% |
GNW | 10/23/2016 | China Oceanwide Holdings Group Co., Ltd. (N/A) | $5.43 | $3.2400 | 03/31/2020 | 67.59% | 2741.26% |
TGE | 12/17/2019 | Blackstone Infrastructure Partners (N/A) | $22.45 | $14.1 | 06/30/2020 | 59.22% | 216.15% |
GILT | 01/29/2020 | Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (CMTL) | $8.37 | $5.47 | 10/31/2021 | 52.96% | 32.88% |
SORL | 11/29/2019 | Ruili International Inc. (N/A) | $4.72 | $3.19 | 06/30/2020 | 47.96% | 175.06% |
FG | 02/07/2020 | Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF) | $12.50 | $8.51 | 09/30/2020 | 46.89% | 89.13% |
NTGN | 01/16/2020 | BioNTech SE (BNTX) | $2.93 | $2.07 | 06/30/2020 | 41.52% | 151.55% |
List of all pending deals:
The number of active deals in our Merger Arbitrage Tool increased last week to 75. The aggregate deal consideration increased to $538.81 billion, from last week’s $528.22 billion.
Stein Mart (SMRT) moved to the top of our table of ‘Top 10 deals with largest spreads’ with a spread of 221.43%, followed by Condor Hospitality Trust (CDOR) at 120.24% and Central European Media Enterprises (CETV) at 84.68%.
Disclaimer: I hold a long position in Mellanox Technologies (MLNX). 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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