The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that money managers who bet on the outcome of Couche-Tard's pursuit of Seven & i are either licking their wounds or celebrating a win. The Globe's Andrew Willis writes that on Thursday, investors bought and sold 54.5 million Seven & i shares in Tokyo, nine times the normal trading volume. The stock closed at 2,007.50 yen, well below Couche-Tard's cash offer of 2,600 yen per share. Couche-Tard's stock price jumped 8.3 per cent to $74 in Toronto and trading was five times the average volume, with 6.7 million shares changing hands. Merger arbitrage is a hedge fund strategy with historically decent returns. Over the past 12 months, the benchmark Hedge Fund Research merger arbitrage index is up by 10.3 per cent. However, the failure of a single large takeover can blow up the arbitrage fund sector's performance. Arbitrage funds betting on a Couche-Tard takeover owned roughly $1-billion (U.S.) of Seven & i stock, or about 55 million shares. These funds scrambled to sell their holdings, at a loss, as 7&i's stock price dropped by 9 per cent on news that the takeover talks were finished. Mr. Willis says their losses could have amounted to $90-million (U.S.).