A cheeky website about deals, dealmakers and anything else I find interesting. Edited by Ben Harrington. If you have a tip, want to discuss a story or have a subscription enquiry please feel free to email Betaville at [email protected]. Betaville can also be reached at Whats App, Signal or Telegram. Betaville's Twitter handle is @bharringtonw11 and you can message me via Twitter with stories.
Oh look - I see RhythmOne has confirmed Betaville's scoop from a couple of days ago.
Below is a link to the confirmation and also a link to Betaville's piece published publicly an hour before Mark "the Kleinmanator" Kleinman of Sky News claimed the same story as an "exclusive":..
HMV, Sofa.com and now Patisserie Valerie.
Those are the latest ailing retailers (of sorts) that have been linked in recent days with a potential (rescue?) bid from maverick entrepreneur Mike Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United Football Club.
Indeed, below is a link to yesterday's piece in the Daily Mail about Ashley's interest in the collapsed coffee shop chain...
RhythmOne, a London-listed digital advertising company, is in talks to merge with rival Taptica to create a business with over $600 million of revenues.
People claiming to be familiar with the matter suggested Taptica has held detailed discussions about a combination with RhythmOne, the company formerly known as Blinkx...
Betaville's friends and colleagues on the Sunday papers were clearly working hard last week at digging up stories that make you perk up over your Sunday morning fry up.
Indeed, one of the stand out scoops of the weekend was Neil Craven's blockbuster jackanory in the Mail on Sunday about Marks & Spencer's talks about a combination of sorts with online grocer Ocado. Below is the link:..
Management Resource Solutions, a London-listed mining equipment company, is said to be plotting an equity fundraising.
People claiming to be familiar with the matter said Management Resource Solutions, which operates in Australia and Papua New Guinea, is looking to raise up to £5 million, possibly via a placing of new stock with investors...
Betaville was intrigued to read yesterday in The Times that David Scott, founder of coffee chain Druckers, is planning to buy ailing Patisserie Valerie out of administration.
Mr Scott even told The Daily Telegraph, my former employer, he "has lined up advisers and will make a bid for most of the remaining 122 outlets," adding “nobody else knows this business as well as me - I know the whole thing backwards"...
Apologies for the tardy post - Betaville has been travelling all day without access to the internet.
Anyway, I see London-listed plastics group RPC and Wall Street buy-out titan Apollo finally announced the deal to take the company private for around 780p a share.
Loyal readers of this website wouldn't have been too surprised to learn about some of the details of today's following last Friday's RARE Alert. Below is a link to that piece:..
Betaville has to admit it's puzzling that there was no deal announcement following yesterday's definitive report from the Wall Street Journal about the £3 billion takeover of RPC by Apollo being announced today.
In case you missed it, below is a link to the WSJ story following Betaville's Friday RARE on the topic:..
Oh look: now the venerable Wall Street Journal and my former employer, The Daily Telegraph, are reporting Apollo's £3 billion takeover of RPC is set to be announced tomorrow morning. Below are the links:..
Bloomberg have just chucked out a piece saying the lending banks, including HSBC, have "underwritten a multi-billion leveraged debt financing to back" the buy-out of RPC by Apollo Global Management.
Now, loyal readers will be well aware that Betaville published a RARE alert on Friday evening regarding plastics maker RPC but it wasn't quite as definitve as Bloomie regarding the underwriting of Apollo's debt financing for the deal...
Once you get past the acres of Brexit coverage there were some decent business jackanories knocking about in the Sunday papers today.
One story that caught Betaville's eye was a tucked away on page 2 of the Mail on Sunday's business section about how Mike Ashley is planning to hire new PR "experts" to look after his "growing retail group". Below is a link to Neil Craven's article:..
One of the largest leveraged buy-outs of a European business in the last decade could be heading towards a major financial restructuring after the owners of the company's debt appointed bankers to look at their "options"...
Simon Duke's tale on the front page of the business of The Times about RELX purchasing events organiser Mack Brooks for £200 million caught Betaville's eye this morning. Below is the link:
Most British hacks, even business journalists, will be fixated on the politics of Brexit this evening but for those market watchers wanting a bit of light relief do read on.
So, there were plenty of media organisations claiming to have "smoked out" Millicom International Cellular's merger talks with cable cowboy John Malone today and yesterday...
Central bankers tend to come across as a straight-laced, staid bunch who speak in boring riddles so as not to freak out markets too much.
So, hat tip to the Bank of Jamaica, the central bank for the Caribbean island, for its latest short (music) video clip on "inflation targeting" that is a lot more fun and upbeat than the standard trite remarks (especially if they are from the Bank of England)...
Quelle Surprise - Altitude Group has confirmed Betaville's RARE ALERT from yesterday afternoon despite some "shenanigans" from people close to the company.
Below is a link to the announcement on the RNS in case you missed it:
Betaville got in touch with a few City of London bigwigs this week to see whether there was much afoot. Lo and behold it turns out the dreaded end of March Brexit deadline has put a bit of a dampener on top end dealmaking in the Square Mile, at least. Sad face.
There are, though, a few bits and pieces happening down at the lower end of the market...
Betaville stumbled across this rather curious piece on eFinancialCareers - https://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/331360/morgan-stanley-london-office - about how brilliant Morgan Stanley's toilets are whilst trawling the internet this morning...
[Disclaimer - the information on Betaville does not consitute any form of investment recommendation and is not intended to be relied upon by readers in making, or refraining from, any investment decisions].