Wednesday, 4 July 2018

NEX Group takeover & derivatives

Another takeover, another example of hedge funds piling in using derivatives. In this case its NEX Group, which is being taken over by US-listed CME Group. It's not hostile so it went to a vote and got a strong thumbs up.

I find this one interesting as it's another example of hedge funds running the merger arbitrage trade, albeit in uncontested circumstances. This is classic 'picking up pennies in front of a steamroller' behaviour. They are taking a punt on being to skim a bit off expected price movements (upwards in the target, downwards in the bidder). As far as I can see no-one claims there is any kind of market inefficiency that this behaviour is ironing out.

Anyhow, here's who is in the mix using derivatives, based on a quick trawl of rule 8.3 disclosures.

York Capital  (also active in GKN/Melrose) with 4.63%

Magnetar Capital - 1.2%

Carlson Capital - 1.95%

Omni Partners - 1.13%

TIG Partners - 1.27%

UBS O' Connor - 1.02%

PSquared - 1.9%

Sand Grove - 1.61%

Alpine Associates - 1.5%

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