SPAC Rush Leads Active ETF to Go All In on Blank-Check Firms
- Accelerate Arbitrage Fund shifts away from merger arb strategy
- ETF has returned more than 40% since April launch in Canada
Accelerate Arbitrage Fund, which trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has returned about 42% since its April 7 launch compared to an 8.9% gain for the S&P Merger Arbitrage Total Return Index over the same period.
The world’s first actively managed exchange-traded fund that invests in blank-check companies is doubling down on the red-hot SPAC market at the expense of its other strategy, merger arbitrage.
The Accelerate Arbitrage Fund was launched in April by Julian Klymochko, the founder and chief executive of Calgary-based Accelerate Financial Technologies. The firm invests in special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, before they’ve announced deals, and also incorporates merger arbitrage, which aims to capitalize on the spread between a target’s stock price and the offer price before a deal closes.