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Showing posts from July, 2018

Sold: Monsanto (merger completed)

Have been busy, and probably not efficient with my free time, so haven't blogged much... Need to get into a rythm and dedicate more time to investing. I think I'm going to give myself to post once a week and maybe just do a roundup of things I did that week, articles I read,etc. Anyway, the Monsanto buyout by Bayer successfully closed a month ago and I just got around to reviewing it. As with most mergers, it took a bit longer than initially forecast--this is why if you are into risk arbitrage, you should always factor in a longer closeout process which lowers your annualized return. As I remarked a while ago, m&a is getting riskier with potential USA trade war with China, and likely followed by escalating trade war with Europe, so deal breaks are likely to become more common. Already several Chinese and high technology deals ran into issues. Overall return wasn't that spectacular but I was satisfied with it. Dividends added about 1.8% which is always a positive wit