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.
Apparently, Japan Tobacco are in London town this week for a "presentation". This has set a few tongues wagging. However, from what I understand the Japanese ciggie giant is here to talk to investors i.e. they are in town for an investor roadshow.
Still, I'm re-introducing Betaville's flag pole series in case there is more to it. For readers who don't recall, I have pasted a few links of past flag pole stories...
It's a Monday, so here is the link to today's Tip TV session.
I note AIG has this afternoon announced it has sold Lloyd's of London underwriter Ascot to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $1.1 billion.
Although the sale price is much higher than I reported today's deal announcement confirms my "scoop" from a few weeks ago was 100pc accurate.
Here is a link to my original story:..
Mediclinic is preparing to bid for Spire Healthcare, the FTSE 250 company that was formed from the sale of BUPA hospitals.
According to excellent sources, Mediclinic is working with bankers from Morgan Stanley on the potential purchase of the remainder of Spire that it doesn't own (remember last year Mediclinic bought 29.9pc of Spire Healthcare for 360p a share)...
It's not often little old Betaville comes up with the RARE about politics and Government policy (people who know me well know that I'm more of a corporate reporter) but I stumbled upon some policy RARE earlier this week that, if true, will have major implications for home owners, estate agents, housebuilders and, I guess, the British economy...
The Serious Fraud Office is once again coming under fire.
This time the business section of The Times splashed on an intriguing tale from Katherine Griffiths - a former colleague from my time at The Daily Telegraph and now Banking Editor at The Times - about how the SFO has, so far, failed to go after the "higher ups" involved in the whole Libor fixing affair.
Here is a link a to Katherine's excellent piece, which is well worth a read:..
It's been a couple of weeks since Zak hosted me on Tip TV but today I was back in the chair. Here is a link to today's session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTT_SAvFY2k&feature=youtu.be..
It's good to see Air Liquide finally confirm little old Betaville's scoop from a few weeks ago about the French industrial gases giant exploring a sale of company that invented Scuba diving equipment.
In case you don't recall, a couple of weeks ago I wrote this:..
I note Deal Reporter and its sister publication PARR followed up little old Betaville's tale from a couple of months ago on Cypress Semiconductors. In case you don't recall, here is a link to that piece:..
The summer is over (well, in the UK at least) and dealmaking has roared back into life.
This morning the Kleinmanator's mega scoop from last night about Micro Focus buying Hewlett-Packard's software division for $8 billion was confirmed on the Regulatory News Service, sending the the company's stock over 20pc higher...
It would appear the Poundland vote on Steinhoff's takeover offer has ended up being a bit of a damp squib.
According to brokers, only 2.14pc of shareholders voted against the offer!..
Clearly, all eyes this week will be on how Elliott, the edgy US hedge fund, plans to vote its 25pc stake in discount retailer Poundland after switching its shares into physical stock. Is it a bluff, a double bluff or even a triple bluff? The market will find out soon enough.
Ironically, though, it's one of Elliott's rather large positions held in another company - SAB Miller - via contracts for differences that is causing a frisson of anxiety among investors...
As regular readers of my work can imagine, I was rather busy yesterday (see yesterday's The Sunday Times). So, a few jackanories fell by the wayside during yesterday's mayhem.
One of those things was a story I was trying to stack up about Berkeley Group, the London-focused housebuilder that has been heavily shorted by hedge funds over the last few months...
The sharp suited types over at Elliott - the punchy American hedge fund that often makes big, acitivist punts on events - have done something rather unusual: the hedgies have switched most of the near 23pc position in Poundland into physical equity...
French industrial gases giant Air Liquide is exploring a sale of the company that invented Scuba diving equipment and was founded by the well-known oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
Air Liquide has asked bankers at Goldman Sachs to find a buyer for Aqua Lung, which was formerly known as La Spirotechnique. People familiar with the matter said information packs have already been sent to potential buyers, many of whom are likely to be private equity firms...
I see The Kleinmanator of Sky News today ran a story about how Rio Tinto had dumped its longstanding broker Credit Suisse and replaced the Swiss institution with Deutsche Bank.
The core facts of Kleinman's "exclusive" story are eerily similar to a piece I did a week or so ago on little old Betaville. Here is the link:..
Hilarious (or ridiculous, perhaps) - the Financial Times is now reporting little old Betaville's AIG/Ascot scoop but attributing the tale as "first reported" by the Wall Street Journal. Here is the link:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9e87f5ae-696b-11e6-a0b1-d87a9fea034f.html#axzz4IEMfWzpj..
I see the Twitterati on Twitter (there are quite a few words beginning with twit, here) are claiming the mighty Wall Street Journal this afternoon broke the story or landed the "scoop" about AIG selling Ascot, the Lloyd's of London insurer.
Funny that because I'm sure I published a story this morning about how AIG is gearing up to sell Ascot. Here is the link:..
That last bastion of old school broking - the Lloyd's of London insurance market - may soon be a fertile environment for dealmakers.
I'm hearing from good industry sources that US insurance giant AIG is gearing up for a potential sale of Ascot. Ascot is a member of the Lloyd's market, where it's not unusual for brokers and underwriters to go out for a long boozy lunch and return to work fours hours later completely inebriated. In fact, in some places it's encouraged...
Zak was down in the dumps today, so I cheered him up by blathering on for ten minutes about the curent red hot M&A market. Here is the link to today's session:
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