Highlights The Fund added to event-driven holdings, most notably the 5.75% 2026 notes issued by PDC Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: PDCE) which is in the process of being acquired by Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX). New issue activity picked up and we participated in several transactions, most notably Northland Power Inc.’s (TSX: NPI) inaugural hybrid issue which priced […]
Highlights In response to the hostile regulatory environment for merger deals this year and particularly in May, spreads for mergers have widened considerably. Merger arbitrage spreads now offer increasingly appealing returns with average merger arbitrage spreads in North America increasing to double digits from last year[1]. As the SPAC sector shrinks, so has the SPAC […]
Highlights With improved valuations, the Fund added to long credit positions, while also topping up short positions in equity index ETFs. We believe that the divergence between credit and equities, which has been widening since March, will eventually mean revert, as credit conditions are typically a leading indicator of economic activity and asset prices. The […]
Highlights April saw a return to a more normalized merger arbitrage market following a volatile March fraught with regulatory pushback and increased uncertainty due to the regional banking crisis. A benefit of the elevated volatility and regulatory risk was a widening of arbitrage spreads. We continue to see favourable conditions for deal activity in the […]
Highlights Several of our shorter duration holdings experienced solid gains in April, including secured bonds of Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC (private) and Life Time Group Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LTH). In banks, our focus was on AT1 securities issued by the two largest Canadian banks trading prices of 75% of par or lower. We established […]
Highlights A positive development during the month was banks returning to provide buyout debt financing. March was the peak month of SPAC maturities for 2023 with the industry now fully lapping the peak of the 2020/21 SPAC bubble by the typical two-year maturity date. As the size of the SPAC sector and the number of […]
Highlights The Fund added back a position in Valvoline Inc. 4.25% 2030 (NYSE:VVV) that we had sold out of in February. This bond is expected to be called in Q1 2024 with the proceeds from the already-completed asset sale to Saudi (Aramco). We exited our position in Rogers Communications Inc. special mandatory redemption bonds, as […]
Highlights 2023 is seeing deals materialize from a more diverse range of sectors. We expect technology sector M&A to continue representing a leading share of deal flow over the next year. The relative slowdown in M&A activity this year is a likely consequence of the current macro environment, marked by higher inflation, interest rates and […]
Highlights The Fund’s positioning was very defensive to start the month and finished with more market exposure compared to the end of January. However, we remain positioned defensively as spreads are tighter than the historic average, with near-term risks for asset prices skewed to the downside in our view. We added to holdings that are […]
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