AlphaSituations-Event/Catalyst Driven Research, AlphaSituations

Robert Sassoon

Robert Sassoon has been an equity analyst for more than twenty years focusing primarily on global special situations. Robert has worked in research for several large sell-side institutions, including Credit Suisse, Natwest Capital Markets and Societe Generale. During his career, he has achieved top 5 rankings in various analyst surveys, including the Extel and Greenwich surveys.

In 2017, Robert founded AlphaSituations, an idea-generating investment research service with the goal of delivering a unique portfolio of ideas to drive client growth and returns by uncovering compelling and highly profitable value propositions as well as lucrative shorter-term trading situations arising from select dislocating corporate restructuring events and catalysts. Currently, the main geographical focus of the research is North America. Since its establishment, AlphaSituations has delivered a track record of outperformance with a hit rate of winners of more than 70% of its portfolio of ideas generating annualized average returns of 20%.

In January 2022, AlphaSituations was contracted  by Water Tower Research,  an investor engagement and stakeholder communication platform to provide coverage of Special Situations.

AlphaSituations-Event/Catalyst Driven Research

AlphaSituations

Since its establishment, AlphaSituations has delivered a track record of outperformance with a hit rate of winners of more than 70% of its portfolio of ideas generating annualized average returns of 20%. In January 2022, AlphaSituations was contracted by Water Tower Research, an investor engagement and stakeholder communication platform to provide coverage of Special Situations

Event-Driven

<p>The prospect of a mega-merger in the tobacco combining two companies - <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/philip-morris-international" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13328:1" rel="noopener">Philip Morris International (PM US)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/altria-group-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:6572:1" rel="noopener">Altria Group (MO US)</a> - with an aggregate market cap of $200 BN is in the works. The two companies have confirmed that they are in discussions about a possible'merger of equals', 11 years after they had separated from each other. </p><p>In this insight we  assess the merits of a possible strategic U-turn. Our conclusion is that the real value of reuniting Altria and PMI is not about the short term, but more a bet on the longer term evolution of the tobacco industry and how best to maximize value from it. Our assessment suggests that combining may well be the better pathway than the go it alone strategy, even though there may not be so much  benefit for either set of shareholders in the short term.</p>

The prospect of a mega-merger in the tobacco combining two companies - Philip Morris International (PM US) and Altria Group (MO US) - with an aggregate market cap of $200 BN is in the works. The two companies have confirmed that they are in discussions about a possible'merger of equals', 11 years after they had separated from each other. In this insight we  assess the merits of a possible strategic U-turn. Our conclusion is that the real value of reuniting Altria and PMI is not about the short term, but more a bet on the longer term evolution of the tobacco industry and how best to maximize value from it. Our assessment suggests that combining may well be the better pathway than the go it alone strategy, even though there may not be so much  benefit for either set of shareholders in the short term.

MergerTalk: Philip Morris Int/Altria - Back To The Future/Why A Merger May Make Sense Now