Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund were 0.13% and -0.27%[1] respectively in March 2025 while the HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned 0.41%[2]. Download the PDF. […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund were up 0.4% and 0.6%[1] respectively in February 2025 while the HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned 0.7%[2]. Download the […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund were up 0.6% and 0.9%[1] respectively in January 2025. The HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned 0.6%[2]. Download the PDF. […]
Highlights There was a pickup in deal activity in December as pent-up demand going into the US election was released. We initiated positions in 16 new merger deals during the month, notably in several small-cap […]
Highlights The Fund initiated positions in 12 merger deals while 12 deals closed this month. Invested deals span a broad range of sectors including healthcare, industrials, materials, energy, financials and real estate with a mix […]
Highlights The Fund initiated positions in 10 new merger deals and 13 deals held within the Fund closed. Capital from closed deals was recycled into new and existing mergers trading at attractive spreads. The Fund […]
Highlights Ten new merger deals were initiated in the Fund and six deals held within the Fund closed. We are currently seeing the highest level of potential “deals in the works” for small and mid-cap […]
Highlights The Fund has increased exposure to SPACs through participation in new issuances adding exposure to existing SPACs. Equity markets corrected in early August before subsequently recovering. The Fund took advantage of widening spreads […]
Highlights July was another positive month for Fund as several of the larger holdings closed allowing us to harvest and redeploy capital. Key deals included: Apartment Income REIT, Vericity Inc, National Western Life Insurance Co, […]
Highlights Key deals held in the Fund closed in June, including Indigo Books & Music Inc., Shockwave Medical Inc., Model N Inc., and Secure Energy Services. The Fund initiated positions in 13 new merger deals […]
Highlights The Fund initiated positions in 17 new merger deals. Several key deals closed after achieving their final approvals. These included: Tricon Residential Inc, Carrols Restaurant Group, TrueContext Corp and MDF Commerce Inc. Our SPAC […]
As published in Finance et Investissement on 3 June 2024 (in French). Can SPACs, those beleaguered blank-cheque companies whose recent history is as volatile and unpredictable as the emotional health of a certain former president of […]
Highlights After a euphoric March, April poured cold water on the euphoria halting the market’s year-to-date rise. Global M&A at the end of April was up 31% from last year. In Canada, technology sector leads […]
Question: Is the 60/40 asset mix over because of higher levels of correlation between stocks and bonds? What is the rationale for having an allocation to non-correlated assets or hedge-fund strategies in a long-term diversified […]
As published in Finance et Investissement on 6 March 2024 (in French). For the past three years, technology firms have dominated mergers & acquisitions activity. Last year marked an inflection point with the U.S. energy sector […]
Highlights Fund holding, Everbridge Inc (NASDAQ: EVBG, a critical event management enterprise software company) announced they had entered into an agreement to be acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo. The Fund initiated positions in […]
Highlights North America is expected to lead global M&A with the health care, real estate, consumer staples and technology sectors expected to be the primary beneficiaries of the recovery. After a slow start to the […]
As published in Finance et Investissement on 6 March 2024 (in French), and Conseiller on 25 March, 2024. There is a wide subset of different variables that can affect a business and lead it into […]
Highlights After a positive end to 2023 which saw several key deals held by the Fund close, January had muted activity due to seasonality. The Fund initiated positions in 15 new merger deals. Six deals […]
As published in CFA Institute Enterprising Investor on February 12, 2024 Global M&A plunged to a decade low last year, with $2.9 trillion in deal value announced, a 17% decline from the prior year. Dealmakers […]
Highlights There was a high level of activity in the Fund during December with several merger deals closing by year-end. This allowed the Fund to harvest returns and redeploy the capital in new opportunities. Nineteen […]
As published in Finance et Investissement on 8 January 2023 (in French). After a year when many buyers and sellers were waiting on the sidelines for improved visibility and a better environment to make deals, 2024 could […]
Highlights November was a strong month driven by the closing of several deals including many of the largest positions in the Fund. There were 19 merger deals held within the Fund that closed during the […]
As published in Finance et Investissement on 29 November 2023 (in French). Since early autumn, La Belle Province has seen a significant uptick in mergers & acquisition deal activity among small cap companies. To date, several Quebec-based […]
As featured in FundLibrary on November 22, 2023 Conditions ripe for increasing small-cap M&A activity Global merger and acquisition (M&A) activity totaled $2 trillion through the first three quarters of 2023, a 27% decline from […]
Highlights October was a tough month for markets as recessionary fears and higher bond yields pressured markets. In October, the Fund initiated positions in 23 new or previously announced mergers, while 20 merger deals held […]
Dear Unitholders, Highlights The Fund initiated positions in 14 new or previously announced mergers while five merger deals held within the Fund closed during the month. At the end of September, the Fund had 41 […]
As published in Finance et Investissement on 27 September 2023 Materials, healthcare, and consumer staples remain the bright spots in global M&A activity which is down from $2.56 trillion to $1.84 trillion through the first […]
Highlights The Fund initiated positions in 20 new or previously announced mergers, while nine merger deals held within the Fund closed during the month. Performance was impacted by a regulatory challenge to a merger deal […]
As published in Finance et Investissement on 28 August 2023 It’s been a dry season for capital markets as mergers activity remains in a state of suspended animation with deal value at US$873.4 billion in […]
Highlights: July was an active month for the Fund as we continued to harvest returns from closed merger deals and reinvest that capital in new mergers. Merger arbitrage spreads continued to remain at wide levels […]
As published in Finance et Investissement on 7 August 2023 Mergers and acquisitions can be an effective use of capital for businesses to stay viable by growing their capabilities, reducing costs, potentially eliminating competitors, and ultimately […]
Highlights June was a good month for the Fund as it harvested returns from several closed merger deals, which we added to at wider spreads in May. The Fund took advantage of recent volatility to […]
As seen in CFA Institute: Enterprising Investor, July 14, 2023 Hook ups just aren’t what they used to be. The worldwide value of merger and acquisitions dropped to around US$1.22 trillion at the end of […]
As featured in the Financial Post: FP Answers, June 23, 2023 Q: I’m a keen DIY investor and enjoy investing for the long term as well as trading a small basket of stocks. I’ve been […]
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 […]
As published in Conseiller on 19 June 2023. While global M&A has slowed down considerably since last year due to investor jitters amid a steep rise in borrowing costs and market uncertainty, if you know where […]
As published in Conseiller on 29 May 2023. The torrid pace of global M&A appears to be playing catch up, especially in the mega cap universe where we have seen elevated regulatory scrutiny on high profile deals […]
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 […]
As published in Conseiller on 16 May 2023 and FI: Finance et Investissement on 3 May 2023 The punchbowl has been taken away. The era of “free money” being thrown with abandon by investors at […]
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 […]
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 […]
Highlights After a busy December where we had positioned the Fund to take advantage of the wave of year-end SPAC liquidations, January was an active month as we redeployed proceeds from those liquidations into new […]
HIGHLIGHTS The Fund’s positive performance was driven by proceeds from several SPAC liquidations and redemptions, tightening of some wide-spread merger arbitrage deals, and the closing of several merger deals. The Fund had its highest positioning […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) was up 0.3% in November, bringing year-to-date performance to 2.8% and one-year performance of 3.1%[1]. Download PDF M&A Market Update Global M&A activity totalled $3.3 trillion through […]
Highlights The Fund initiated a position in the Twitter acquisition by Elon Musk. While this deal was a relatively bumpy ride, it’s also a great example of the contractual and legal strength of a definitive […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) was down 1.1% in September, bringing year-to-date performance to 1.1% with one-year performance of 2.9%[1]. Download PDF M&A Market Update M&A activity stalled in Q3 with a […]
Despite the choppy macro backdrop, global M&A activity remains elevated with US$2-trillion in the first half of the year
The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) marked one year since its inception on September 8, 2022 with performance of 4.3% since inception. The Fund was up 1.1% in August, bringing year to date performance to […]
The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) ended the month of July 2022 with a NAV of $10.30 per unit[1]. Download PDF The first seven months of 2022 saw $2.3T of deals announced globally, the fourth […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) ended the month of June 2022 with a NAV of $10.27 per unit[1]. Download PDF The first half of 2022 closed off with $2.2T of global M&A […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) ended the month of May 2022 with a NAV of $10.23 per unit[1]. M&A activity remains elevated with over $1.8T of deals announced globally at the end […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) ended the month of April 2022 with a NAV of $10.23 per unit[1]. Download PDF After a slow-down last month, M&A activity is picking back up with […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) ended the month of March 2022 with a NAV of $10.28 per unit[1]. M&A activity ended Q1 with over $1 trillion of global deal activity, down 21% […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) ended the month of February 2022 with a NAV of $10.18 per unit[1]. Despite equity market volatility, record inflation, rising rates and a geopolitical crisis, M&A activity […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) ended the month of January 2022 with a NAV of $10.15 per unit[1]. Download PDF M&A activity is off to the races, with momentum from the record […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) ended the month of December 2021 with a NAV of $10.19 per unit[1]. Download PDF M&A activity capped off 2021 with a record $5.8 trillion in global […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund (PAAF) ended the month of November with a NAV of $10.18 per unit[1]. Download PDF M&A activity continues to set records, topping $5 trillion in global deal activity […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund ended the month of October with a NAV of $10.10 per unit[1]. Download PDF M&A is red-hot with a record level of global deal activity through the first […]
I’m not the man they think I am at home…I’m a rocket man. It’s been an exciting summer in the race for human space exploration, with Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos successfully completing suborbital space […]
The Fund continued to deliver positive performance with year-to-date returns through to April 30, 2021 of 17.9%[1]. This performance has been supported by many of the businesses we own seeing an expansion in operating leverage, […]
What an eventful first year it has been for the Pender Small Mid Cap Dividend Fund. Starting the Fund amid bleak circumstances in the early days of the pandemic, we feel fortunate when we reflect […]
November 15, 2020 marked a historical milestone with the successful launch of the SpaceX Crew-1 Mission, transporting four astronauts aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience over 400km into orbit on a twenty-seven hour voyage to the […]
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting global shutdown of major parts of the economy, many of which remain closed, have created considerable distress in credit markets. By late March, the amount of US distressed debt had […]
Dave Barr and I attended the MOI Global Latticework New York 2019 event on September 12, 2019. MOI Global, which was founded by John Mihaljevic the author of The Manual of Ideas (see our book […]
Our investment in Transat A.T. represents a successful catalyst-driven close the discount (CTD) investment. As Canada’s third largest airline and one of the largest tourism companies in the world, Transat has had a long and […]
To mark 10 years since the launch of our mutual funds, Pender took its annual Investment Conference to a new level, with additional due diligence sessions and a keynote speaker. Culture First, everything else later […]
“Well that escalated quickly” Investors may be feeling symptoms of vertigo with the significant volatility exhibited by the market in the last couple quarters. As the headlines almost boastfully state, 2018 capped off the worst […]
A lost decade in the past could be a great setup for the future 2018 was a “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad” year for the S&P/TSX Composite Index which rung in the New Year […]
In my October 2017 commentary I talked about expanding Pender’s Circle of Competence and mentioned the addition of Amar Pandya to our team and how he brings additional depth to our mid and large cap […]
Our focus on identifying high quality businesses that generate strong returns on invested capital and have promising internal reinvestment opportunities generally results in our funds having little to no exposure in resource companies. That said, […]
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