CMRAX — Calamos Merger Arbitrage Fund
Data updated: 2026-09-29
CMRAX — Calamos Merger Arbitrage Fund. United States Mid Cap Equity · $2.56M AUM · 1.98% expense ratio. Holdings, fees, performance and SEC filings.
CMRAX Fund Overview
CMRAX — Calamos Merger Arbitrage Fund is a US mutual fund managed by Calamos Investment Trust/il, categorised as United States Mid Cap Equity. ABC INVEST provides holdings, performance, costs, cashflows, risk data, prospectus documents and SEC filings, sourced from SEC filings.
- Type: US mutual fund
- Manager: Calamos Investment Trust/il
- Category: United States Mid Cap Equity
- Assets under management: $2.56M
- 1-year return: 12.7%
- Ticker: CMRAX
- SEC CIK: 0000826732
- SEC series ID: S000081268
- Share class ID: C000243951
CMRAX Investment Objective and Strategy
Calamos Merger Arbitrage Fund describes its objective and strategy as follows, from its latest prospectus filed with the SEC by Calamos Investment Trust/il.
Investment objective
Calamos Merger Arbitrage Fund's investment objective is long-term capital appreciation.
Principal investment strategy
"The Fund utilizes an actively managed merger arbitrage strategy by establishing long and short positions in the securities of companies that are involved in significant corporate events or transactions, such as mergers, acquisitions and other buy-out transactions. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by generating absolute, uncorrelated returns to equity and fixed income markets. Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in common stock, convertible securities, special purpose acquisition companies or similar special purpose entities (collectively, ""SPACs""), preferred stock, corporate bonds, warrants and options of U.S. and non-U.S. companies (including in emerging markets) which are involved, or which Calamos Advisors believes will be involved, in a variety of significant corporate events including, but not limited to mergers, takeovers, tender offers, leveraged buyouts, spin-offs, liquidations and other corporate transactions (""merger-arbitrage investments"").
During market conditions when there are fewer corporate events or transactions as described above, the Fund may invest a significant portion of its assets in securities issued by the U.S. Government, its agencies or government-sponsored enterprises or cash and cash equivalents in anticipation of merger arbitrage investment opportunities. The Fund's investment process focuses on identifying desirable risk-adjusted opportunities to capture the ""spread"" between the price at which a target company's stock trades following an announcement that it is to be acquired or participate in another corporate transaction and the ultimate price to be paid for such stock upon completion of the transaction. The Fund will establish short positions in securities of such companies. The Fund may seek to purchase securities at prices only slightly below the anticipated value to be paid or exchanged for such securities in the merger, exchange offer or cash tender offer (and substantially above the price at which such securities traded immediately prior to the announcement of the merger, exchange offer or cash tender offer).
Likewise, when Calamos Advisors believes it is likely that a transaction will not be consummated, the Fund may take short positions in such securities in order to seek to capture the difference attributable to the perceived market overvaluation of the acquisition target. The Fund may hold short positions in the target company and/or the acquiring company in a corporate transaction. In addition to holding a long position with respect to a company, part of the Fund's merger arbitrage strategy may include holding a short position to hedge risk in the Fund's portfolio. The investment team utilizes both quantitative and fundamental research to identify those transactions which it believes provide desirable risk-adjusted opportunities. The fundamental research encompasses analysis of (i) the macro conditions that could influence the timing or probability of transaction completion, (ii) the specific facts and circumstances surrounding a transaction, and (iii) the valuation of the company as a standalone business in the event that the transaction is not consummated.
While the team seeks to identify spreads that imply a mispriced transaction completion or duration risk, they will also look for other market-driven opportunities embedded in the ""spread,"" including inefficiencies due to liquidity constraints in the arbitrage market or dislocations in merger spreads caused by other factors. The quantitative process consists of proprietary analysis surrounding both valuation (including valuation of derivatives on the equity of the target company) and other market conditions (e.g., liquidity). The investment team will employ a variety of strategies to seek to manage the risks associated with the Fund's strategies, which may include investing across the capital structure of a company, most notably by investing in convertible securities (including synthetic convertible securities), other derivative instruments, including options, as well as corporate debt.
The convertible securities in which the Fund invests may be either debt securities or preferred stocks that can be exchanged for common stock. The Fund may invest significantly in SPACs. A SPAC investment typically represents an investment in a special purpose vehicle that seeks to identify and effect an acquisition of, or merger with, an operating company in a particular industry or sector. During the period when management of the SPAC seeks to identify a potential acquisition or merger target, typically most of the capital raised for that purpose (less a portion retained to cover expenses) is invested in income-producing investments. The Fund may invest in SPACs for a variety of investment purposes, including to achieve income. Some SPACs provide the opportunity for common shareholders to have some or all of their shares redeemed by the SPAC at or around the time a proposed merger or acquisition is expected to occur.
The Fund may sell its investments in SPACs at any time, including before, at or after the time of a merger or acquisition. For purposes of the Fund's 80% policy discussed above, a SPAC is considered to be a merger-arbitrage investment throughout its life cycle. The Fund may invest in certain companies that have alternative business structures, such as Master Limited Partnerships (""MLPs""). MLPs are publicly traded partnerships that trade on public securities exchanges similar to the shares of a corporation, without entity level taxation. In addition, the Fund may also invest in the real estate industry, including real estate investment trusts (REITs) and non-investment grade bonds (high yield or ""junk bonds""). The Fund may invest up to 35% of its net assets in foreign securities, including securities in emerging markets.
Foreign securities are securities issued by issuers that are organized under the laws of a foreign country or that have a substantial portion of their operations or assets in a foreign country or countries, or that derive a substantial portion of their revenue or profits from businesses, investments or sales outside of the United States. The Fund's investments in foreign securities include stocks of foreign companies that are represented in the United States securities markets by American Depositary Receipts (""ADRs"") or similar depository arrangements. The Fund's foreign debt investments can be denominated in U.S. dollars or in foreign currencies. Debt securities issued by a foreign government may not be supported by the ""full faith and credit"" of that government. A synthetic convertible instrument is designed to simulate the economic characteristics of a convertible security through the combined features of a debt instrument, or loan, and a security providing an option on an equity security.
The Fund may establish a synthetic convertible instrument by combining a fixed-income security with the right to acquire an equity security. The fixed-income and equity option components may have different issuers, and either component may change at any time. The Fund may utilize derivatives to enhance return and yield potential and also for risk management purposes by buying or selling options to (i) pursue upside capture opportunities (ii) hedge downside risk or (iii) enhance portfolio yield. When seeking to generate income from option premiums, the Fund will write (sell) options, which could include the use of both call and put options. The Fund may write call options on a portion of the equity securities (including securities that are convertible into equity securities) in the Fund's portfolio and/or on broad-based securities indexes (such as the S&P 500 or MSCI EAFE) or ETFs (exchange traded funds).
The Fund is classified as ""non-diversified"" under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the ""1940 Act""). The Fund's ability to broadly diversify its holdings is impacted by the number of merger arbitrage opportunities that exist and, as a result, may not meet the tests for being classified as a diversified fund."
CMRAX Holdings
Top 10 holdings of Calamos Merger Arbitrage Fund by percentage of net assets, from the fund's latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Holding | % of net assets |
|---|---|
| Norfolk Southern Corp | 10.33% |
| Kenvue Inc | 8.04% |
| AES Corp/The | 6.24% |
| Txnm Energy, Inc. | 5.92% |
| FutureTech II Acquisition Corp | 5.69% |
| Brighthouse Financial Inc | 5.35% |
| Roku Inc | 5.24% |
| Warner Bros Discovery Inc | 5.13% |
| Global Payments, Inc. | 4.78% |
| Nutanix, Inc. | 3.95% |
CMRAX Portfolio Allocation
Asset-class allocation of Calamos Merger Arbitrage Fund by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Asset class | Allocation |
|---|---|
| Equity | 72.1% |
| Fixed Income | 29.5% |
| Derivatives | 0.1% |
CMRAX Performance
Total returns for CMRAX (as of 2026-10-01), from SEC filings.
| Period | Total return |
|---|---|
| YTD | 1.7% |
| 1 year | 12.7% |
| 3 years (annualised) | 5.2% |
CMRAX Risk Information
Risk metrics for CMRAX, derived from monthly returns in SEC filings.
- 1-year volatility (annualised): 3.9%
CMRAX Costs and Fees
CMRAX costs about $198 per $10,000 invested per year in fund expenses.
- Net expense ratio: 1.98%
- Gross expense ratio: 6.59%
- Portfolio turnover: 177%
- Brokerage commissions: 14.09 bps of average net assets (SEC N-CEN)
CMRAX Cashflows
Over the 12 months to 2026-04, Calamos Merger Arbitrage Fund had net inflows of $373.97K, from monthly SEC N-PORT filings.
| Month | Net flow |
|---|---|
| 2026-04 | $33.10K |
| 2026-03 | −$255.02K |
| 2026-02 | −$54.32K |
| 2026-01 | −$4.54K |
| 2025-12 | $139.67K |
| 2025-11 | −$102.79K |
CMRAX Debt Constituents
Largest debt holdings of Calamos Merger Arbitrage Fund by percentage of net assets, from the latest SEC N-PORT filing.
| Debt holding | % of net assets |
|---|---|
| Txnm Energy, Inc. | 5.92% |
| Global Payments, Inc. | 4.78% |
| Nutanix, Inc. | 3.95% |
| Jd.com, Inc. | 2.94% |
| Alkami Technology, Inc. | 2.92% |
| Pagerduty Inc. | 2.91% |
| Gamestop Corp. | 2.54% |
| Bill Holdings, Inc. | 1.93% |
| Sable Offshore Corp. | 1.58% |
| Wolfspeed, Inc. | 0.09% |
CMRAX Prospectus and SEC Filings
Official Calamos Merger Arbitrage Fund filings on SEC EDGAR — prospectus, portfolio holdings and annual reports.
- Prospectus (485BPOS) — filed 2026-02-23
- Prospectus supplement (497) — filed 2026-02-26
- Prospectus supplement (497) — filed 2025-03-05
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-09-29
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-06-26
- Portfolio holdings (N-PORT) — filed 2026-03-31
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2026-01-13
- Annual census (N-CEN) — filed 2025-01-10
Related Funds
Other United States Mid Cap Equity funds tracked on ABC INVEST:
Data Sources
ABC INVEST compiles this page from public filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through EDGAR: portfolio holdings and monthly cashflows from Form N-PORT, expenses and returns from fund prospectuses (Form 485BPOS) and the SEC DERA Risk/Return Summary data sets, annual data from Form N-CEN, and shareholder reports from Form N-CSR.