This Week in Special Situations is a research-based slide presentation sent on a separate mailing list. If you do not wish to receive it, opt out here.
Register now to join fellow capital allocators, portfolio managers, and CIOs at Latticework 2026 in Chicago on November 10-11 (preliminary agenda).
This is the fourteenth issue of This Week in Special Situations, our curated survey of actionable ideas. We do not attempt to profile every special situation. The universe of activist campaigns, buybacks, insider purchases, strategic reviews, and merger arbitrage spreads is vast, and most of it is noise. We filter for situations with a misaligned price or a noteworthy structural reason for market inefficiency.
Over time we will likely narrow this list further. That is where you come in. Please tell us which situations added value to your process and, just as importantly, which were of no consequence. Brutally honest feedback is the most valuable input we can receive. It will shape what we keep and what we cut. Our goal is to make this survey progressively more useful to you.
This week’s report (available as a slide deck) profiles 25 situations across four buckets: activist campaigns, capital return and insider conviction, M&A, and strategic alternatives. Below we highlight the handful that stand out on catalyst clarity, valuation, and asymmetry, followed by thesis summaries covering a broad cross-section of the report.
This publication is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. The information is based on publicly available data and regulatory filings. Errors are not only possible but likely. Readers should conduct their own research.
The Situations That Stand Out
The Cooper Companies (US: COO) had three directors buy roughly $1.9 million of stock in the open market over four sessions after the board ended a nine-month strategic review, with the stock 21% below where the company itself had been repurchasing. The September 9 filings closed a review opened in December 2025: the board judged the offers for CooperSurgical inadequate, kept the business, and lifted the buyback authorization to $3.0 billion, leaving about $1.5 billion open, roughly 14% of market value. The shares fell about 15% the next day and closed September 16 at $54.61, against the roughly $69 average Cooper paid for 4.9 million shares in the quarter ended July 31. Walter Rosebrough roughly doubled his holding, Lawrence Kurzius nearly tripled his, and Paul Keel built his entire position from zero, all at stated prices between $53 and $55.
Grab Holdings (US: GRAB) said on September 15 it intends to spend the remaining $900M of a $1.75B authorization within twelve months, retiring roughly 7.7% of the shares, and pledged about $1.5B for control of Atome Financial the same day. At the September 16 close of $2.87 that is about 314 million of roughly 4.1 billion Class A and Class B shares, at 1.7x book. Trailing adjusted FCF of about $450M funds half of it; roughly $5.4B of net cash liquidity funds the rest. Net cash is 46% of the share price today and roughly 28% once the buyback and the first 60% of Atome are paid for, with the other 40% contracted two years out. Insiders are not buying: no open-market Section 16 purchase in six months, and the chief executive sells 400,000 Class A shares a month.
Designer Brands (US: DBI) trades near $6 against a sum-of-parts range Stone House puts at $11 to $19 a share, on the argument that its 79% Topo Athletic stake is unpriced. Stone House escalated its reported 16% Class A position on September 15 with a deck marking the core at 5.5x to 7.5x EBITDA and Topo at roughly $250M to $450M of EV, both its own assumptions rather than the company’s. Designer Brands paid roughly $19M for Topo in December 2022; management said on September 10 that Topo should generate over $100M of revenue in 2027, and raised FY2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $0.47 to $0.52. Control is the constraint: Jay Schottenstein alone held 65% of the combined vote at March 31 on eight votes per Class B share, so Stone House is asking for segment disclosure, not board seats.
Sturm Ruger (US: RGR) has a live partial tender: Beretta commenced its contractually mandated offer on September 17 at $44.80 a share, a price it set back in March as a floor rather than a ceiling. The board terminated Ruger’s poison pill on September 16 once the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period ended, the last of the regulatory conditions under their May cooperation agreement, lifting Beretta’s ownership cap from 10% to 25%. The offer runs for up to about 2.4 million shares, expires on October 15, carries no minimum tender and no financing condition, and Beretta says it does not currently intend to extend. Against the September 16 close of $37.08 that is 21% above market, but Beretta already holds 9.93% and the fixed share cap means a heavily oversubscribed offer prorates to roughly 17% of non-Beretta shares, worth about 3.5% blended.
Boston Omaha (US: BOC) authorized a $30 million Class A buyback, roughly 7% of market value, to run against a stock at 0.83 times book. The board approved it on September 10 and it takes effect November 1, expiring at the earlier of December 31, 2027 or $30 million spent. At the September 16 close that retires about 2.2 million of 29.9 million shares outstanding. Internal cash flow does not cover it: first-half operating cash flow of roughly $10M went into about $12M of capital spending and $6M of distributions to minority partners. The pending ~$84M sale of surety subsidiary GIG to CopperPoint, signed in May, is the most likely source; the 2025 program keeps buying until then, with about $9M left to spend.
Quick Thesis Summaries
The remaining situations, in the order they appear in the deck.
D-MARKET Electronic Services and Trading (US: HEPS) — Kaspi.kz lifted its Hepsiburada stake to 93.5% in two September filings, paying $2.95 an ADS to VR Global against a $2.59 close, yet neither Turkish squeeze-out route is available at that level, leaving a roughly $72M float whose nearer risk is a liquidity-driven Nasdaq delisting.
QVC Group, Inc. (US: QVCG) — GoldenTree took a negotiated 1.6 million share block off Silver Point at $16.25, roughly 7% below that day’s close, lifting it to 22% of a post-bankruptcy QVC Group that now trades at $15.92, under the block price, with all twelve directors and executive officers owning zero shares.
Vail Resorts (US: MTN) — Oasis has put a 6.2% voting stake and a four-person slate into a proxy fight at a company whose nine seats are all elected annually, though the decisive holder is Baron Capital at 18.3%, and the only announced board refreshment lands after the vote.
Gabia (Korea: 079940) — Align Partners moved its entire 14.29% into Korean onshore funds on September 10 and kept the control-influence purpose three weeks ahead of an October 8 EGM on board composition that Gabia’s own board convened, while DCK’s KRW 48,000 tender sits 24.7% above the KRW 38,500 close.
Recordati S.p.A. (Italy: REC) — Palliser is pressing the board to withdraw support for the €51.29 CVC and Groupe Bruxelles Lambert tender and to demand at least €60, a figure that is Palliser’s own demand rather than a valuation, with the stock at €52.75 and acceptances closing October 15.
WUS Printed Circuit (Taiwan: 2316) — Palliser Capital said on September 9 it had pushed its stake above 5%, but the board resolved on September 3 to subscribe for up to US$25M of the Kunshan affiliate’s planned Hong Kong listing, adding to the asset that anchors Palliser’s case rather than monetizing it.
S-1 Corporation (Korea: 012750) — Flashlight Capital’s KRW 116,000 offer for five Samsung affiliates’ combined 21% expires September 23 with not one of the five boards having answered as of the September 17 close of KRW 84,800, and even a clean sweep would leave Flashlight behind SECOM of Japan at nearly 26%.
AerCap Holdings (US: AER) — A fresh $1 billion authorization, about 4.5% of market value, follows four programs that all closed early and a share count down roughly 16% since the end of 2024, though at $142.21 against $119.21 of book each repurchase is dilutive to book value per share, and insiders sold through the period without a single open-market purchase.
RB Global, Inc. (US: RBA) — The TSX cleared a doubling of the buyback to US$1 billion after RB Global spent the entire first US$500 million at an average of $93.22, roughly 10% above the $84.29 close, with adjusted net debt at 1.6x EBITDA and the dollar cap binding before the share cap.
Scotts Miracle-Gro (US: SMG) — The $500 million authorization ranks behind the dividend and debt paydown, with only 0.22 turns of covenant headroom before a $225 million annual cap covering dividends and buybacks together starts to bite, and the dividend alone runs about $154 million of that.
Signet Jewelers (US: SIG) — Signet paid JPMorgan the full $125 million on September 11 and took initial delivery of about 1.0 million shares, roughly 3% of the count, with the balance of the accelerated repurchase still to settle, at about 5.2x EV/EBITDA struck on a company carrying no funded debt.
Tenable Holdings (US: TENB) — The $170M repurchase funded out of the new convertible settled outright at the September 10 close of $32, with no deferred tranche and no later true-up, and the share count is about 9% smaller than a year ago rather than flat against grants.
Dainichiseika Color and Chemicals Mfg (Japan: 4116) — A single off-auction print on September 16 took in 4.1% of shares outstanding at 0.63x book and the board closed the program the same morning, with the repurchased shares sitting in treasury rather than cancelled, against a forward P/E of 10x.
Aurora Cannabis (Canada: ACB) — Curaleaf’s hostile bid leaves Aurora roughly 10% below the live value of the consideration, but its stated December 1 expiry falls short of Canada’s 105-day statutory minimum and must be amended before any shares can be taken up, against a unanimously rejecting board, a rights plan still in force and an independent-majority condition Curaleaf cannot waive.
European Lithium Limited (Australia: EUR) — The Supreme Court of Western Australia has convened the scheme meetings rather than approved the scheme, with the second hearing set for October 26, and on Critical Metals’ latest close the scrip on offer is worth about 15% more than the A$0.355 share price.
Medtronic (US: MDT) — A split-off exchange offer rather than a spin-off: tendering holders receive $107.53 of MiniMed diabetes stock per $100 of Medtronic, a 7% discount capped at 4.5939 MiniMed shares per Medtronic share, a limit sitting only about 3% away on the September 16 closes, with the offer expiring October 9.
Gran Tierra Energy (US: GTE) — A definitive proxy filed September 15 sets an October 9 vote on selling the entire Colombian and Ecuadorian business under Section 271 of the DGCL, after which pro forma cash and a seller note of roughly $330M approach the $376M market value, though the retained Canadian and Azerbaijani business ran a first-half pretax loss.
WhiteHorse Finance (US: WHF) — The board formed a special committee on September 15 to explore strategic alternatives with no banker, data room or timetable disclosed, making this a review rather than a running auction, at a BDC trading at 0.62x NAV with non-accruals at 5% of cost, net investment income covering 87% of the distribution, and $85M of notes maturing in December 2026.
Thryv Holdings (US: THRY) — Thryv agreed on September 12 to sell its print directories business to a Carolwood affiliate for $142 million in cash, more than 1.6 times its entire $88 million equity market value, with the price reduced by 75% of the unit’s net revenue from October 1 until closing, so delay erodes the proceeds.
New Fortress Energy (US: NFE) — The UK Part 26A restructuring plan took effect September 11, retiring about $5.7B of debt in exchange for the whole Brazil business plus 87% of the future equity, and the listed preferred that takes that 87% trades 13% below conversion value, against going-concern doubt that the new letter-of-credit facility treats as an event of default.
The deck is available to members (scroll up to download, or sign up below).
Featured Events
Latticework 2026 (REGISTER), Chicago, Illinois (Nov. 10-11, 2026)
Ideaweek 2027 (FULLY BOOKED), St. Moritz (Feb. 1-4, 2027)
The Zurich Project 2027 (COMING SOON) (Jun. 1-3, 2027)