A surge in convertible bond issuance has delivered standout returns for a specialist team at LMR Partners, with the group’s Convertible and Capital Structure Arbitrage Fund up around 30% year-to-date, marking one of the firm’s strongest performances on record, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The team, led by Seb Gorga in Dubai and Vincent Olekhnovitch in Zurich, manages more than $1bn in the dedicated fund and over $1.8bn across LMR’s wider platform, according to people familiar with the matter. The gains come amid a boom in global convertible bond issuance, which has reached about $157bn in 2025, the highest level since 2021.
Rival funds including Charlie Carnegie’s Context Partners and Joe Wong’s Linden Advisors have also reported double-digit returns this year, underscoring the strength of the strategy as issuance and corporate activity accelerate.
Convertible arbitrage traders typically seek to profit from pricing inefficiencies between a company’s convertible bonds and its equity, with merger and acquisition activity providing added opportunities. Rising rates and heightened single-stock volatility have further boosted the strategy’s appeal, as companies increasingly opt for convertibles over traditional debt.
LMR, founded by former UBS traders Ben Levine and Stefan Renold, oversees about $12.5bn across multi-strategy, fixed income, credit, and event-driven portfolios. Its flagship multi-strat fund has gained 7.6% through September, while the convertible team — which launched its standalone fund in 2021 — continues to benefit from what investors describe as the most favourable market backdrop for the strategy in over a decade.
