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Anne-Sophie D’Andlau By Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London:

An apparently counter-intuitive belief that in times of turmoil, merger arbitrage situations are ripe for picking lay behind the September 2010 launch of CIAM. The three partners have extensive experience of merger arbitrage. Co-founder Anne-Sophie D’Andlau explains the reasoning behind their launch: "Merger arbitrage is our expertise historically – our CIO, Catherine Berjal, has been managing merger arbitrage positions for 14 years".

A second strength within the firm is that they are very niche. D’Andlau says: "Our view is that we have to be more niche going forward because if you have under $500m under management then you have to be very specialised, with a specific expertise. We only invest once a transaction has been announced."

Thirdly, D’Andlau believes that the current equity market turmoil produces opportunities for the niche merger arbitrage manager. "In this current environment we think that when there is turmoil it is a good moment to invest in merger arbitrage because spreads are wider and more volatile. While it is true that on the face of it volumes are down we still have billions of dollars of transactions announced. There are still enough opportunities in our investment universe to have a decent and performing portfolio."

The dream position for the team is a distressed merger arbitrage position. "It happens frequently and even more in this environment that a transaction ......................

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