Merger of two stocks in same portfolio

[amorris101]

How do I merge two stocks so they show up as one investment with all the transaction and cost basis history?

Prior to the merger I had holdings of both MGP and VICI and both are in the same portfolio in Fund Manager. On April 28, 2022 MGP merged into VICI. For every share of MGP I get 1.366 shares of VICI. How do I end up with only VICI in my portfolio showing all of the transactions I made for VICI and for MGP (prior to it's merging into VICI)?

[Mark]

Hi amorris101,

In general, you can copy/paste all your transactions to merge two investments, as described in this tutorial:

https://youtu.be/alv3-dbw_GU

However, this won't work if you used a split to record the change from MGP -> VICI. If you used a split, you could use the "Transfer Between" wizard to move all the shares. This has the drawback that you're leaving part of the performance history in 1 investment up until the date of the transfer. You might just consider leaving them in 2 separate VICI investments.

[amorris101]

I haven't yet done anything in Fund Manager with the MGP/VICI merger.

It sounds like there is really no way to do a merger in the way MGP and VICI are merging?

Copy and paste won't work because I need to do the split first to reflect that my holding of each share of MGP becomes 1.366 shares of VICI. Then I can transfer the shares of MGP into VICI but not the Investment History. Am I understanding this correctly?

Why is it that copy and paste won't work after I do a split in the MGP holding?

Perhaps you could add a merger function to the program that would in effect automate this process?

[Mark]

Hi amorris101,

The copy/paste merge method won't work if you had a split, because you only want the split to apply to the original MGP shares, and if you copy the split, it will apply to your original VICI shares as well.

If you record the merger using the "Transfer Between" instead of a split, you'll end up with the original MGP and just one VICI investment. When using the Transfer Between, choose MGP as your source, and your existing VICI investment as the destination, and enter the number of shares appropriately. To find the "Transfer Between" wizard, right mouse click on MGP in the Portfolio Editor, and choose "Investment Data / Transfer Between...".

[amorris101]

But what if I split the MGP shares in the MGP Investment and then copy them into the VICI investment. Then close the MGP Investment. The remaining company post-merger is VICI and then I would think the MGP investment history would be carried over into VICI. Why wouldn't that work?

[Mark]

Buy 100 MGP
Split 1.366 for 1
Now, you own 136.6 shares
If you copy both transactions, that 1.366 for 1 split will apply to any shares you had in VICI prior to the split. You can't copy just 136.6 shares, you copy/paste transactions, not shares.

The "Transfer Between" wizard should do what you're looking for here.