The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund aims to produce consistent and low volatility absolute returns by investing primarily in merger arbitrage opportunities. This low-risk strategy can be used to provide diversification benefits to clients with low correlation to traditional equity and fixed income investments.
| Class | 1 Mo. | 3 Mo. | 6 Mo. | 1 Yr. | 3 Yr. | 5 Yr. | 10 Yr. | 15 Yr. | Since Inception |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 4.2 | 2.6 | 3.0 | |||
| F | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 5.0 | 3.4 | 3.6 | |||
| F (USD) | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 6.1 | 4.1 | 4.2 |
| Class | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 3.1 | 0.7 | 3.0 | 4.2 | 4.2 | |||||
| F | 3.5 | 1.5 | 3.8 | 5.0 | 5.0 | |||||
| F (USD) | 1.8 | 4.6 | 6.1 | 6.1 |
| Class | Dec'21 | Dec'22 | Dec'23 | Dec'24 | Dec'25 | Since Inception |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 0.02 | 0.17 | 0.57 | 0.41 | 1.05 | 2.21 |
| F | 0.02 | 0.23 | 0.57 | 0.12 | 0.99 | 1.92 |
| I (USD) | 0.40 | 0.64 | 0.33 | 1.37 |
| Mercer Park Opportunities Corp. | 5.1 |
| MAK Acquisition Corp. | 3.5 |
| Launch One Acquisition Corp. | 3.1 |
| Soho House & Co Inc. | 2.6 |
| Drugs Made In America Acquisition II Corp. | 2.5 |
| Valuence Merger Corp. I | 2.3 |
| PROS Holdings, Inc. | 1.9 |
| Titan Acquisition Corp | 1.9 |
| Keyera Corp. | 1.8 |
| Vine Hill Capital Investment Corp. | 1.7 |
| Huntington Bancshares Incorporated | -0.6 |
| Cenovus Energy Inc. | -0.7 |
| Gildan Activewear Inc. | -0.7 |
| Commerce Bancshares, Inc. | -0.9 |
| Black Hills Corporation | -1.0 |
| Palo Alto Networks, Inc. | -1.1 |
| iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF | -1.1 |
| McEwen Inc. | -1.2 |
| Crescent Energy Company | -1.7 |
| Keyera Corp. | -1.9 |
| Total Percentage of Top 10 Holdings | 26.40 |
| Total Net Assets of Fund | $10,429,994 |
| Code | Class | Description | MER | Trailer | Min. Investment Initial/[Subsequent] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PGF 2140 | A | Front End - HNW | 3.51 | 0.85 | $500/[$] |
| PGF 2150 | F | Fee Based - HNW | 2.99 | $500/[$] | |
| PGF 2151 | F (USD) | Fee Based - HNW | 3.19 | $500/[$] |
As at 30-06-2025. The management expense ratio (“MER”) is calculated based on expenses charged to the fund inclusive of applicable taxes including GST and HST (excluding commissions, performance fees and other portfolio transaction costs) and is expressed as an annualized percentage of average net assets for the period/year. The applicable taxes are calculated using the attribution percentage for each province based on unitholder residency.
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund were down -0.5% and -0.6% respectively1 in November 2025 while the HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned 0.3%2. Portfolio Update November was another active month for the Fund, reflecting the continued momentum in the M&A market and a steady cadence […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund were 1.0% and 0.8% respectively1 in October 2025 while the HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned 0.1%2. Portfolio Update October saw a flurry of M&A activity allowing the Fund to initiate positions in 18 new merger deals while 16 deals […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund were -0.3% and -0.5% respectively1 in September 2025 while the HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned 0.8%2. Portfolio Update September was another active month for the Fund, characterized by steady deal flow and favourable conditions across both merger and SPAC […]
August was a very active month for the Fund, marked by a burst of new deal activity as well as increased attractiveness in several existing deals that progressed into the final stages of closing. During the month, the Fund initiated positions in 30 new or existing deals while nine deals held within the Fund closed. At the end of August 2025, the Fund held 49 active investments in small cap deals under $2 billion, 36 of
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund were up 0.6% and 0.9%[1] respectively in July 2025 while the HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned 1.1%[2]. Portfolio Update July saw another positive month of performance in the Fund as several key holdings achieved all required regulatory approvals and […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund were up 0.4% and 0.7%[1] respectively in June 2025 while the HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned 2.7%[2]. Portfolio Update June was another positive month for the Fund, benefiting from tightening spreads in several key deals held within the Fund. […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund were up 1.4% and 1.8%[1] respectively in May 2025 while the HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned 3.04%[2]. Portfolio Update May was another strong month for the Fund, benefiting from tightening spreads and bumps in deals initiated in the Fund […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund and the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Plus Fund were up 1.0% and 1.5%[1] respectively in April 2025 while the HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned 0.22%[2]. Portfolio Update In what was one of the most volatile months in markets since the inception of the Fund, the strategy performed […]
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]. M&A Market Update Global M&A activity surged in the final month of Q1 before stalling due to the mounting trade war with $885 […]
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]. M&A Market Update Global M&A activity was over $617 billion in early March in-line with the same period last year[3]. In 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]. Portfolio Update M&A markets are off to a bang in 2025, driving an active month with the Fund initiating positions in 13 new […]
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 deals trading at high yields. Six deals held within the Fund closed during the period. With SPAC yields falling as […]
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 of strategic and financial acquirers. We expect to see several of these close before the calendar year-end. The Fund continues […]
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 holds diverse exposure across sectors, geographies and deal types with a healthy mix of high quality financial and strategic acquisitions. […]
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 North American companies since launching the Fund. The Fund continues to be fully invested given the volume of quality merger […]
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 by adding to key positions. The Fund initiated positions in 14 new merger deals with 12 deals held within the […]
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, Everbridge Inc and Argonaut Gold Inc. Performance also benefitted from buoyant equity markets, robust deal activity and outperformance of small […]
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 with 11 deals closing. SPAC exposure.is likely to increase in the short-term. Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund was […]
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 exposure will see a pickup during the summer due to SPAC expirations which should drive an increase in redemptions and […]
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 the United States, be staging a comeback? The SPAC sector, which raises money through public exchange listings and then acquires […]
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 deal volumes followed by the energy & power and financials sectors. We believe valuations for many small cap companies owned […]
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 10 new merger deals with 9 deals held within the Fund closing. Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund was […]
Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund was up 0.9%[1] in February 2024. The Fund’s benchmark, the HFRI ED: Merger Arbitrage Index (USD) returned -0.2% during the same period. M&A Market Update Through mid-March Global M&A Activity totaled $630 billion, a 42% increase from last year as M&A activity continues to recover.[2] North America is […]
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 distress. If these various factors were arranged within a pyramid structure, at the base, would be macroeconomic—the economic cycle, global/national growth, inflation, central […]
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 held within the Fund closed. There are signs of renewed interest in smaller cap companies. Dear Unitholders, The Pender Alternative […]
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 merger deals held within the Fund closed in December and the Fund initiated positions in 19 new deals. There was […]
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 month and the Fund initiated positions in 11 new deals. As conditions improve, catalysts are forming within our small-cap universe […]
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 within the Fund closed during the month. We are cautiously optimistic on M&A potential through the year-end with commentary from […]
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 investments in small-cap deals under $2 billion, 32 of which were valued at under $1 billion. Deal activity in Canada […]
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 held by the Fund and the widening of spreads in certain other deals driven by regulatory approval delays and extensions […]
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 in July following an expansion of spreads in June with some key catalysts on larger merger deals resulting in a […]
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 bring net exposure to nearly 100%, the highest level this year. The Fund initiated positions in seven new or previously […]
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 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 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 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 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 deals. The Fund initiated positions in 12 new or previously announced merger deals, with eight merger deals held within the […]
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 in SPACs since inception to benefit from a wave of early liquidations or redemptions with much of that capital redeployed […]
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]. M&A Market Update Global M&A activity totalled $3.3 trillion through the first 11 months of 2022. This was the second highest deal total on record despite being down 36% from last year’s […]
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 merger agreement. We believe we are now at the peak of the SPAC maturity cliff. Hundreds of SPACs, which were […]
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 steep 55% decline in deal activity vs. the record M&A boom of last year. After eight consecutive quarters with over […]
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 2.2%[1]. The Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund was launched with the goal of providing investors with a low-risk, low-volatility, absolute return-focused […]
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 highest year-to-date total on record2. M&A activity was down 62% in July, totalling $200.8B of deals announced, likely driven by […]
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 activity continuing the two-year streak of >$1T in quarterly deals2. While down 21% from last year’s record pace, M&A activity […]
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 of May, a total that has only been exceeded three times in history2. A total of $377B of merger deals […]
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 the value of global deals rising 23% in April[2]. Global M&A totaled $1.4T at the end of April, down from […]
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% from last year as the impact of rising inflation and geopolitical tensions may be causing some acquirers to hit the […]
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 shows no signs of slowing with over $740B of global deal activity in the first two months 2022, the second […]
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 levels of global M&A activity last year continuing into 2022. Deal activity in January was the third highest on record, […]
Leveraging Pender’s unique expertise in identifying and analyzing M&A catalysts. Geoff Scott chats with Amar Pandya, Portfolio Manager of the Pender Alternative Arbitrage Fund. Together they will introduce the Fund and dive into the investing strategies behind the Fund, the opportunities that Amar sees on the horizon and the overall Fund positioning. They also explore […]
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