Commentaries

Highlights The primary driver of returns in September were higher interest rates, as 2024 rate cuts are being priced out in favour of a “higher for longer” for reality. The Fund continued to sell into market strength early in September before increasing exposure as markets sold off towards the end of the month. The Fund […]

Highlights The Fund had several pockets of strength in September, including energy-related securities, a pharma company, and U.S.-based marijuana companies. Higher risk-free rates caused most bonds within the Fund to fall in price. We have become more constructive on longer duration issues due to a vastly improved risk/reward equation. The Pender Corporate Bond Fund returned […]

Highlights We reduced the Fund’s weight in several, shorter-dated, high-quality corporate issuers and government bonds and re-allocated proceeds to longer-dated holdings, including Warner Brothers Discover 5.391% ’62. The Fund’s position in Inflation-Linked Bonds was slightly higher at quarter end. Exposure to credit via Corporate Bond Fund holdings remains lower relative to historic weightings. Over the […]

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 • The Fund benefited from volatility in credit markets with a bias to protecting capital. • The Fund’s exposure to event-driven positions was significantly reduced. The Pender Alternative Absolute Return Fund finished August with a return of 1.2%, bringing year-to-date returns to 5.2% . Following two months of decreasing risk premiums and volatility, both […]

Highlights: • Positive contributors to the Fund were Cineworld Group PLC and Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae). Detractors included Canadian rate-reset preferred shares due to negative price momentum, and Emergent BioSolutions, which we have added to on price weakness. • New positions include Nuveen Quality Municipal Income Fund (NAD US Equity), a closed-end fund […]

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 The broad-based rally provided an opportunity to sell liquid high-yield positions at prices that we viewed as fully valued. There were several positive developments within our Event Driven book including Black Knight Inc. (NYSE: BKI), Arconic Corp. (NYSE: ARNC), and PDC Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: PDCE) We are watching commercial real estate where defaults mount […]

Highlights: Positive contributors included First Majestic Silver Corp., which rallied from multi-year lows, and our holdings of Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. notes, which attracted bids due to their attractive double-digit yield to a 2025 put date. Positive performance was offset by several investment grade securities, which were influenced by higher risk-free rates. Line-item credit weakness […]