David A. Witkin’s Beryl Capital Management is an investment manager focused on merger arbitrage. The firm was created back in 2013, and its offices are located in Redondo Beach, California. Since its inception, it has provided services to individual clients, small businesses and pooled investment vehicles mainly across the United States. David Alexander Witkin is currently Beryl Capital’s CEO and Portfolio Manager. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University. His skills and awareness in selecting strategic investments were acquired in the years before creating his hedge fund. After graduating from Harvard University, he started working as an Arbitrage Analyst at Bear Sterns & Company. A year and a half later, he joined Mason Capital Management, where he also worked as an Analyst. He served as Portfolio Manager of Citigroup Alternative Investments and Hayground Cove Asset Management until 2009.
Beryl Capital Management’s investment strategy focuses on merger arbitrage investing. In simple words, the fund’s strategy includes exploiting market inefficiencies before or after a merger or acquisition. The firm invests mostly in publicly traded equity and equity-related securities of U.S. companies that engage in corporate restructurings and special situations such as mergers, reorganizations, corporate acquisitions, spin-offs, and others. However, on an opportunistic basis, it may also invest in securities in companies outside the U. S. and may even buy and sell short stocks subject to takeover rumors.
By the use of its strategy and a portfolio of arbitrage positions, Beryl Capital aims to achieve a net annual return of 15 to 30%. The performance of its Beryl Capital Partners fund can give us an idea on the outcome of the firm’s strategy. In 2017, the fund brought back 6.57%. Through October 2018, the fund had returned 6.86%. As of October 29th, 2018, Beryl Capital Partners’ total return was at 13.89% with a compound annual return of 7.71%. Its worst drawdown was at 3.87.
As per the firm’s Form ADV, on March, 29th, 2018 Beryl Capital Management held discretionary regulatory assets under management for a value of $362.20 million,
On its 13F filing for Q4 of 2018, the fund disclosed an equity portfolio valued at $609.12 million with 30 positions, most of them arbitrage positions. Its largest holding was also its new acquisition: Tesaro Inc (NASDAQ:TSRO), where Beryl Capital purchased 2,844,742 shares worth $211.22 million. This stock equals 34.67% of the fund’s equity portfolio worth. Tesaro is a pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing oncological treatments.
Continue reading on the next page more about the interesting changes Beryl Capital Management made to its 13F equity portfolio during this Q4 of 2018