Soros Fund Management LLC, George Soros' family office, selected several merger targets among its top common stock holdings in the third quarter. Excluding exchange-traded funds, five of its top 14 common stock positions at Sept. 30 were merger targets.
This article is part of a series on large institutional investors. All institutional investment managers active in the U.S. with over $100 million in investments in Form 13F securities must file quarterly statements detailing their positions.
Merger targets
Four of those five merger targets, Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd., Duke Realty Corp., Alleghany Corp. and ChemoCentryx Inc., were acquired in deals that closed subsequent to the quarter-end. According to the most recent Form 13F, Biohaven and Duke Realty were the overall No. 2 and No. 3 holdings, respectively, as of Sept. 30.
Soros Fund Management raised its Biohaven stake by 81.1% during the third quarter and the Duke Realty stake by more than 2,300%. There was no share position change in Alleghany, the sixth-largest overall holding. And No. 12 common stock holding ChemoCentryx was a new position for the family office.
The fifth merger target, Sierra Wireless Inc., announced a sale to Semtech Corp. on Aug. 2. The deal is expected to close in January 2023. Sierra Wireless represented another third-quarter initiation for the family office and was the No. 14 common stock holding at Sept. 30.
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Other top holdings
Rivian Automotive Inc. remained the firm's top overall holding at the end of the third quarter. Soros Fund Management reduced its share ownership in the electric-vehicle company by 8.3% after cutting the stake by 10.1% in the second quarter.
Soros Fund Management also continued cutting its concentration in Liberty Broadband Corp., which had been the family office's largest holding as recently as a year ago. In the third quarter, the stake was down another 20.6%, falling to the No. 9 common stock holding.
Notable purchases included a tripling of Soros Fund Management's Tesla Inc. stake, and a sharp increase in its Bank of New York Mellon Corp. position to 401,227 shares from 5,627 shares.
Two other new positions during the quarter included Booking Holdings Inc. and Agree Realty Corp.
ETF holdings
Soros Fund Management initiated a two-pronged stake in Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund: a $7.2 million ordinary share position and a put position with an implied value of $90.0 million. In the previous quarter, the family office had owned a call position in the SPDR energy ETF as well as an ordinary share position in VanEck Oil Services ETF.
The other third-quarter ETF initiation was a put position on Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund, with an implied value of $16.7 million.
The family office also boosted its stake in technology stocks through Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1. The ordinary share position increased by 83.9%, and the call position was up by 25.0%.
