Merger activity continued to remain lackluster last week with no new deals announced and four deals closing. There were only two new deals announced in the month of April, the lowest we have seen since we started tracking M&A data more than 10 years ago. I expect May to remain a low volume month but expect a big uptick in smaller acquisitions later this year as the survivors of the crisis start accessing cheap capital for tuck-in acquisitions.
We changed the formula for the spread on the acquisition of FGL Holdings (FG) by Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF) to reflect the fact that at this point most shareholders are likely to receive approximately $7.50 in cash and a stock portion that translates into roughly 0.103 shares of Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF). We had this deal listed as a “special conditions” kind of deal and have now changed it to a “cash plus stock” type of deal. We appreciate the feedback and collaboration we received from subscribers in adjusting the formula for this deal.
The spread for the acquisition of the retail REIT Taubman Centers (TCO) by Simon Property Group (SPG) narrowed considerably last week after Taubman filed a proxy statement with no changes to the cash consideration of the deal. Some arbitrageurs were concerned that the deal might get renegotiated to a lower price and the filing of the proxy statement appears to have put those fears temporarily to rest.
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 last week.