Merger Arbitrage Spread Performance – 02 December 2018

We’ve added some additional information recently

• The standard deviation of returns for the top 20 in addition to the average return. This gives our readers a better idea as to the movement within the portfolio.
• The change in the VIX (relative percent) is also included as a complimentary figure to the performance of the SPY

Winners

This week’s best performer (by an extraordinay margin) was AFSI gaining an incredible 5.51%. This deal closed during the week and following the announcement of the approval saw its stock price immediately rise from $14.00 to the offer price of $14.75. Congratulations to all the arbs out there who were long at the time. This deal completed 1 month early. The second best performer was IDTI, up 2.30%. In third place was RHT which was up a further 1.95% following last weeks gain of 0.95%. RHT acquired NooBaa, a hybrid cloud data management provider during the week. MITL was also up an impressive 1.73% having filed an S-8 POS on Friday signifying the completion of this deal at $11.15 exactly 1 month early. Another honorable mention is ESL which finished the week up 1.11% following its announcement of a special shareholder meeting to vote on the proposed merger scheduled for January 17th, 2019.