#ArbitrageTradingStrategy

We had a lot of deals closed this year — quite a laundry list of monster deals that were either announced under the Biden administration or under the Trump administration, and we’ve still got others pending that could be lucrative,” said Matthew Osowiecki, a portfolio manager at Water Island Capital, which runs the Arbitrage Fund.

It marks a turnaround for merger arbitrage, which had languished near the bottom of hedge-fund style rankings last year. This year through May, the strategy gained 3.4% on average and much more in individual cases, making it one of the top performers of 2025, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Winners include billionaire Dan Loeb’s Third Point LLC and Pentwater Capital Management, among others.