Strategy Objective

To deliver absolute returns largely uncorrelated to equity and fixed income markets.

Key Differentiators

  • Calamos is a pioneer in convertible and options investing, where analysis of public acquisitions and opportunities to alter risk reward through structure is an ingrained part of the investment process
  • Our merger strategy is a natural extension of our experience managing hedged equity and convertible arbitrage strategies for more than 20 years on average as a team
  • Because of this, we believe one of our main edges resides in public acquisitions where there are convertible bonds, liquid options or other securities within a target company's capital structure that allow us to alter risk reward through trade structure

Strategy Details

As of 12/31/24
Inception Date: 12/01/19
Strategy Assets*: $576.0 M
Benchmark: ICE BofA US 3 Month Treasury Bill Index (G0O1)

*Strategy Assets reflect all assets that are currently being managed (collectively) under the strategy, which may contain multiple performance composites.

Portfolio

Representative Portfolio Ten Largest Holdings

As of 12/31/24
Target Company Sector Acquiring Company %
Juniper Networks, Inc. Information Technology Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company 11.7
Amedisys, Inc. Health Care UnitedHealth Group, Inc. 10.0
Hess Corp. Energy Chevron Corp. 9.4
ChampionX Corp. Energy Schlumberger, NV 9.1
Berry Global Group, Inc. Materials Amcor, PLC 8.0
Envestnet, Inc. Information Technology Bain Capital 6.9
Altair Engineering, Inc. Information Technology Siemens, AG 6.8
United States Steel Corp. Materials Nippon Steel Corp. 6.5
ANSYS, Inc. Information Technology Synopsys, Inc. 6.5
TechTarget Inc/old Communication Services INFORMA PLC 5.3

Characteristics

As of 12/31/24
Name Calamos Portfolio
Number of Holdings 37

Asset Allocation

As of 12/31/24
Asset Allocation %
Common Stock 47.4897
Convertibles 28.6499
Corporate Bonds 1.9482
Rights 0.0487
Sovereign Bonds 0
US Government Securities 0
Options -0.3015
Cash 22.1649

Sector Weightings

As of 12/31/24
Sector % of Assets
Information Technology 47.4%
Health Care 16.2%
Materials 12.1%
Energy 8.4%
Consumer Staples 6.1%
Communication Services 5.3%
Financials 3.4%
Consumer Discretionary 1.1%
Industrials 0.0%
Utilities 0.0%
Real Estate 0.0%
Other 0.0%

Market Capitalization

As of 12/31/24
Market CAP Range % of Assets
<=$0.10bil 0.0%
>$0.10bil<=$5bil 29.4%
>$5bil<=$30bil 68.1%
>$30bil<=$200bil 11.2%
>$200bil -8.6%

Performance

Annualized Total Returns

As of 12/31/24
Name 1-Year 3-Year 5-Year Since Inception (12/01/19)
Merger Arbitrage (Gross) -2.26% 4.21% 3.67% 3.79%
Merger Arbitrage (Net) -3.04% 3.38% 2.85% 2.96%
ICE BofA US 3 Month Treasury Bill Index (G0O1) 5.25% 3.89% 2.46% 2.45%

Calendar Year Returns

As of 12/31/24
Name Qtr ending Dec 24 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 12/1/19 - 12/31/19
Merger Arbitrage (Gross) 0.09% -2.26% 10.08% 5.18% 2.04% 3.71% 0.92%
Merger Arbitrage (Net) -0.11% -3.04% 9.21% 4.35% 1.22% 2.88% 0.85%
ICE BofA US 3 Month Treasury Bill Index (G0O1) 1.17% 5.25% 5.01% 1.46% 0.05% 0.67% 0.14%

Past performance does not guarantee or indicate future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance quoted. Portfolios are managed according to their respective strategies which may differ significantly in terms of security holdings, industry weightings, and asset allocation from those of the benchmark(s). Portfolio performance, characteristics and volatility may differ from the benchmark(s) shown.

Returns and Risk/Reward statistics presented reflect the Calamos Merger Arbitrage Composite, which is an actively managed composite that seeks capital appreciation by generating absolute, uncorrelated returns to equity and fixed income markets. The Composite was created December 1, 2019 calculated with an inception date of December 1, 2019. The Composite results include all fully discretionary accounts, including those no longer with the firm.

Unmanaged index returns, unlike fund returns, do not reflect fees, expenses or sales charges. Investors cannot invest directly in an index.

The ICE BofA 3-Month US Treasury Bill Index (G0O1) is an unmanaged index that measures the performance of a single US Treasury issue with approximately three months to final maturity. The issue is purchased at the beginning of each month and held for one full month. At the end of the month, that issue is sold and rolled into a newly selected issue.

Fees include the investment advisory fee charge by Calamos Advisors LLC. Returns greater than 12 months are annualized. Chart Data Sources: Calamos Advisors LLC.

Average annual total return measures net investment income and capital gain or loss from portfolio investments as an annualized average. All performance shown assumes reinvestment of dividends and capital gains distributions.

Risk / Reward

Risk/Reward Since Inception

As of 12/31/24
Name Calamos Merger Arbitrage Composite ICE BofA US 3 Month Treasury Bill Index (G0O1)
Alpha 4.53% N/A
Beta -0.21 1.00
Annualized Standard Deviation 6.20% 0.67%
Sharpe Ratio 0.20 -0.11
Information Ratio 0.21 N/A

Vehicles & Minimums

Vehicles and Minimums

Vehicle Minimum Availability
Separately Managed Accounts $25 million Available to new investors

Literature

Videos

Merger Arbitrage Strategy Fact Sheet

The Merger Arbitrage Strategy fact sheet provides a snap shot of the investment team, the investment strategy, performance, composition, ratings and returns.

Calamos Financial Services LLC, Distributor

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