Value of Large Temple-Inland Call Spread Pops Post-IP Takeover Attempt

Today’s tickers: TIN, CA, CTRP & VPRT TIN  - Temple-Inland, Inc. –  Just under two weeks ago we made note of a sizable bullish transaction on Temple-Inland in which one strategist purchased a call spread in the January 2012 contract to position for a huge rally in shares of the corrugated packaging producer by expiration. As it turns out, the run-up in the price of the underlying stock arrived far sooner than predicted by the spread, with shares soaring 42.6% at the start of today’s session to an intraday- and multi-year high $29.97 following a hostile $3.31 billion takeover offer from International Paper Co. The bullish investor paid a net premium of $1.10 per contract back on May 25 – when shares in TIN were trading around $22.81 – for the 6,425-lot Jan. 2012 $25/$30 call spread. Call open interest at these strikes indicates the trader is still holding on to the position. To purchase the same Jan. 2012 $25/$30 call spread in the aftermath of the takeover bid, one would need to shell out a net premium of $3.70 per contract at present, which is $2.60 per contract more than the investor paid less than two weeks prior. Meanwhile, options traders taking to Temple-Inland today are focusing their attention on nearer-term contracts. Frenzied put selling is taking place at the June $29 strike where it looks like at least 6,500 puts sold for an average premium of $0.17 each. Traders short the puts keep the full amount of premium received on the transaction as long as shares in TIN exceed $29.00 through June expiration. Approximately 9,100 puts appear to have changed hands at that strike against zero open positions as of 11:45am in New York. Temple-Inland’s overall reading of options implied volatility is currently 32.8% lower to arrive at 23.76%.…