This is the Merger Arbitrage Spread Performance October 7, 2018 analysis. A review of the top 20 tradeable cash based merger arb spreads in the USA for the week 1st – 5th October. Included in this week’s report are the winners, losers and overall performance of the portfolio. This report is based upon the Merger Arbitrage Limited top 20 (T20) list of cash merger arbitrage spreads available as at 30th September.
Winners
The weeks best performer was AVA gaining 1.25%. Modest gains were also recorded by EVHC and IDTI which rose 0.50% and 0.34% respectively
Losers
As seen from the Sunday Funday posting on 30th Sept, EGC again topped the table with the largest profit potential going into the week but unlike the previous week was not able to hang on to its gains and for the week ending 5th October fell $0.43 or 5.5%. Also falling was AFSI 1.31% and NXTM continued its slide declining a further 1.22%.
Further decliners of note included RCII 0.70%, USG 0.67%, ESND 0.86% & SVU 0.62%.
Average
There were 9 winners and 11 losers this week. This made for an overall average portfolio loss for the top 20 of 0.42% in large part due to the performance of EGC whose volatility continues to dominate portfolio performance. This compares with a drop of exactly 1% for the SPY.
New Entrants into the Top 20
As EVHC nears deal completion the spread has narrowed considerably leaving only miniscule spread profitability and has been replaced in the top 20 by MZOR.
The most recent list of the largest spreads is already available, and you can check out the rules for inclusion here. Our free merger arbitrage spread calculator is also available for FREE download. This can be used to value the spread of any stock-for-stock deals you may be interested in.
