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.
Friday, 21 October 2016, 10:56 am
On second thoughts perhaps Jonthan Leinster, a scribbler over stockbroker Berenberg, should claim the this morning's BAT / Reynolds scoop. At 6:00 am this morning (so before the market had open) the analyst, who upgraded BAT to "buy", published a note raising the prospect of the London-listed tobacco giant buying the remaining 58pc of Reynolds that it doesn't own. I have pasted the salient paragraph below:..
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Friday, 21 October 2016, 8:04 am
It's taken two years but British American Tobacco has finally got round to confirming a piece I wrote in the The Times a couple years ago about the giant cigarette group hiring Deutsche Bank alongside UBS with a view to making a $47 billion bid for Reynolds American.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/consumer/article4086903.ece..
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Thursday, 20 October 2016, 11:49 pm
It's been a while since I aired some random RARE on Betaville but I came across an intriguing tale that I thought might be of interest to readers, especially those on the other side of the Atlantic.
Word is US housebuilder Meritage Homes Corporation has been working with investment bankers on a takeover of smaller rival William Lyon Homes...
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Wednesday, 19 October 2016, 7:26 am
I saw Lord O'Neill of Gatley, also known as Jim O'Neill, out of the corner of my eye whilst little old Betaville was at an informal meeting at the uber-suave Dover Street Arts Club (in Mayfair, London) yesterday afternoon.
Baron O'Neill, an economist, is the former head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, former Conservative government minister and once helped lead the Red Knights' takeover bid for Manchester United Football Club...
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Monday, 17 October 2016, 10:14 pm
Little old Betaville headed to the High Court today for the final day of the Property Alliance Group's case against Royal Bank of Scotland...
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Monday, 17 October 2016, 6:03 pm
It would appear the piece I published a couple of weeks ago - https://www.www.betaville.co.uk/tags/avanti-communications/ - was bang on the money.
Today Avanti Communications announced this:..
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Monday, 17 October 2016, 2:11 pm
My old friend Zak was in a good mood, so he wasn't too harsh on me this morning. Here is a link to today's session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2WB90MmNIg..
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Friday, 14 October 2016, 7:41 am
I guess Mark Kleinman's piece yesterday about David Cameron, former British Prime Minister, carrying out a speach for private equity firm Bain Capital just goes to show the buy-out house doesn't care which side of the politcal divide you come from. In case you missed it, here is a link to Kleinman's piece published by Sky News:..
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Wednesday, 12 October 2016, 10:28 pm
Young bankers, hedge funders and property surveyors that frequent Mayfair's bars, restaurants and members' clubs might like to read Jim "Armo" Armitage's Focus piece in today's Evening Standard.
Why?..
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Tuesday, 11 October 2016, 10:58 pm
As usual, there were plenty of high-flying City types that bid for all sorts of prizes at last week's annual Countryside Alliance "wine auction" dinner held at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London a week ago.
Those in attendance included billionaire duty free tycoon Bob Miller, Gulf dealmaker Amanda Staveley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch financier Simon MacKenzie-Smith...
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Tuesday, 11 October 2016, 12:07 am
Shire is closing in on a multi-billion dollar takeover of US-listed Radius Health, a company that specialises in developing treatments for people with osteoporosis.
To be fair, rumours about Shire's interest in Radius are not particularly new. Talk of Shire pouncing on Radius, which currently has a market capitalisation of $2.2 billion, has been doing the rounds over the last twelve months...
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Monday, 10 October 2016, 4:48 pm
Remember Russell Chambers?
In case you don't, let me remind you. Russell is the smooth-talking Credit Suisse investment banker who hit the headlines in the early Noughties after he invited Tony Blair onto his boat in Barbados and lent the former British Prime Minister some swim shorts. Here is a link to a piece on the topic:..
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Monday, 10 October 2016, 1:25 pm
Here is a link to today's Tip TV banter with the urbane Mr Mir:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FcdVv8uQrQ..
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Thursday, 6 October 2016, 8:58 pm
I see ING is airing a similar line to the one I mentioned on Tip TV earlier this week about Bpost's lingering enthusiasm for a takeover of Dutch group Post NL.
In case you don't recall, Belgian mail group Bpost and Holland's Post NL held merger talks in May this year but the deal fell over after it "leaked" in the local press. Bloody journos!..
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Wednesday, 5 October 2016, 6:29 pm
US private equity group HarbourVest is weighing the purchase of a stake in EMI Music Publishing, the company that controls the rights to some of the world's best known bands such as the Black Eyed Peas.
Excellent City sources have told little old Betaville that HarbourVest has been talking to some of EMI Music Publishing's shareholders about buying a shareholding in the music publishing business. ..
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Wednesday, 5 October 2016, 5:22 pm
Some dealmakers I talk to are rather glum. That's because there has been quite a bit of talk of a post summer slowdown in M&A.
However, one sector that is red hot at the moment is insurance. This week alone there have been several major transactions announced, including Sompo's £5.3 billion takeover of Endurance and NN Group's EURO 2.4 billion bid for Delta Lloyd...
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Tuesday, 4 October 2016, 6:04 pm
The corporate broking merry-go-round continues unabated in the City of London.
I'm told ITV has just got rid of JP Morgan and replaced its longstanding corporate broker, formerly known as JP Morgan Cazenove, with Citigroup. Citigroup corporate brokers are now working for ITV alongside Credit Suisse, according to people familiar with the matter...
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Monday, 3 October 2016, 1:48 pm
I have pasted a link to today's Tip TV session below for avid followers who failed to tune in for this morning's banter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp6YxOLwrb8
UPDATE: Apologies - in today's session I refer to the speculation around a potential bid from Roche for Illumina valuing the business at $25 billion but in fact what I meant to say was $35 billion. ..
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Friday, 30 September 2016, 5:32 pm
Avanti Communications is on the verge of securing an agreement with all the owners of its bonds that will see the satellite operator defer the payment of a $32.2 million coupon until 2019, according to sources familiar with the situation...
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Friday, 30 September 2016, 9:46 am
It's only been a couple of days since shareholders voted to approve Anheuser-Busch Inbev's $100 billion takeover of FTSE 100-listed SAB Miller but already the market has moved onto pastures new, speculating about the next massive beer deal.
Yesterday, French stockbroker Exane BNP Paribas published a massive note about the latest "rumour du jour" - talk of Heineken, now the world's second largest brewer, having a crack at purchasing US-listed Molson Coors...
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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].