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.

The Greenhill conundrum...

Tuesday, 27 March 2018, 7:08 pm

Anyone reading the maintream financial press could be forgiven for thinking that it's the end of the road for Greenhill, an M&A boutique that blazed a trail back in the 90s and early noughties by advising on some of the biggest takeover deals in the US and the UK.

In fact, below is a link to recent Bloomberg piece on the firm's recent demise to 52nd on the advisory league tables:..

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A Kiwi quelle surprise...

Tuesday, 27 March 2018, 11:13 am

Take a bow Dan Dunkley (who as far as I'm aware is down in New Zealand somewhere).

Dan, who Betaville had the pleasure of working with at several publications, last year revealed in The Sunday Times that GlaxoSmithKline was preparing to buy out its joint venture partner, Novartis, to get control of their consumer healthcare division. Below is a link to Dan's piece:..

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Cinven buys back into Spire Healthcare...sort of

Wednesday, 21 March 2018, 10:37 am

Ping! An email arrives from a friendly market observer who has picked on the fact that Simon Rowlands, a senior advisor to private equity firm Cinven, has been buying shares in takeover target Spire Healthcare. I have pasted the link to today's RNS announcement below, which shows Rowlands paid around 218p a share for 114,000 shares:..

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Sunday review on a Monday - NEX Group, CME and the LSE

Monday, 19 March 2018, 9:29 am

Ben Marlow went big in yesterday's The Sunday Telegraph about the prospects of a bid battle for Nex Group, tipping owner the of the New York Stock Exchange (also know as the Intercontinental Exchange or ICE) as the most likely counterbidder for the company founded by Michael Spencer. In case you missed it, I have pasted link below to yesterday's splash story in the business section:..

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Tags: NEX Group, CME, LSE

And the winner is...Betaville, apparently

Friday, 16 March 2018, 7:57 am

Betaville has won its first award.

This week ADVFN, another financial website, named yours truly as financial blogger of the year. The news came as a bit of shock to Betaville as there had been no indication ADVFN was even considering Betaville for an award. In fact, Betaville has never even met anyone from ADVFN...

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Damaged Goods: The Inside Story Of...

Tuesday, 13 March 2018, 9:03 pm

Which retail tycoon is set to be the main focus of a ground breaking new book that begins with the title - "Damaged goods: the inside story of..."?

If you think you know, get in touch via the usual channels, such as [email protected].

p.s. If you need a clue, sources say some of the characters include Neville Kahn, the well known Deloitte administrator, and Everton and Tottenham Hotspur Football Clubs...

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Is Colombia Threadneedle willing to back Melrose's £7.5 billion (now £8.1 billion) offer - part 2

Monday, 12 March 2018, 8:27 pm

David Cumming, head of equities for Aviva, today stated he is supporting Melrose's fresh £8.1 billion offer for GKN.

The question is whether other big GKN shareholders - such as Colombia Threadneedle or Standard Life Aberdeen - will publicly back the turnaround investor's bid for GKN?

Watching, again.....

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Ruddy at The Times...

Thursday, 8 March 2018, 9:49 pm

It was good to see former colleague Graham "Ruddy" Ruddick land a cracker jack story on the front page of the main book of today's The Times.

Graham, who Betaville worked with at The Daily Telegraph, effectively broke the story about the unfortunate goings on at the Institute of Directors (although Betaville is sure the Kleinmanator will claim it). I have pasted a link Graham and Alex Ralph's story below:..

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Is Colombia Theadneedle willing to back Melrose's £7.5 hostile takeover approach for GKN?

Wednesday, 7 March 2018, 7:01 pm

The reason Betaville posits the question is reliable sources suggested the fund manager, one of the larger GKN shareholders, may be willing to support Melrose if it bumps its hostile offer a tad.

However, when Betaville put this to a spokesperson for Colombia Threadneedle last week the official response from investment firm was:

“We have not made a decision yet.”

Watching.....

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Beaufort Securities hit by FCA restriction - part 3

Tuesday, 6 March 2018, 7:16 pm

If your still intrigued by the collapse of Beaufort Securities then no look no further than today's business section in The Times.

Former Telegraph colleagues Harry "the Hurricane" Wilson and "Acerbic" Alistair Osborne are doing some cracking work following last week's news about the FBI investigation and the FCA's move to put the company into administration.

I have pasted links to their pieces in today's business section below:..

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Beaufort Securities hit by FCA restriction - part 2

Monday, 5 March 2018, 6:24 pm

The demise of Beaufort Securities gripped the City last week. But regular readers of this website would have known that something wasn't quite right at the firm after it emerged the FCA had slapped a restriction on the broker's discretionary fund management business. Here is a link to last year's article:

https://www.www.betaville.co.uk/news/beaufort-securities-hit-by-fca-restriction/..

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[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].