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.
It's finally happened.
After years of speculation, Numis - The City of London's leading mid cap broker with around 170 corporate clients - has been gobbled up by a larger German rival.
Deutsche Bank is paying 350p a share, around £410 million, for Numis. That's a whopping 72pc premium. Below is the link to the press release:..
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings, the London-listed luxury car maker, is rumoured to be in talks about a tie-up with a rival.
People following the situation have heard talk a rival car maker has been holding talks with Aston Martin about buying a shareholding of around 10pc in the London-listed business...
A certain Brian George Kennedy has disclosed he now owns a 2.8pc shareholding in THG, the London-listed online retailer.
If this the same Brian Kennedy little old Betaville is thinking of then it's the Manchester-based tycoon who built a multi-million pound fortune from selling double glazing and who once owned Premier League winning Sale Sharks rugby club. Below is the link the statement announcement the stake:..
Arch rivals at Bloomberg have finally decided to follow up little old Betaville's recent story on the activists trying to shake things up at Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, the US-listed biopharmaceutical company...
Arch rivals at Bloomberg have published another takeover tale about Shockwave Medical, the US-listed medical technology company.
According to Bloomie, Boston Scientific is now weighing an acquisition of Shockwave Medical to boost its cardiovascular devices business. Below is the link:..
Bloomberg have just published a fresh news line on the Network International takeover situation.
The financial media behemoth reports Canadian investment firm Brookfield is weighing a counter offer for the London-listed Middle Eastern payment processor. Below is the link to the story:..
Mark "The Kleinmanator" Kleinman's good form continues with another takeover scoopette.
According to Sky News City Editor Kleinmanator, private equity firm Cap10 - set up by former Apollo dealmaker Fabrice Nottin - has made an approach for Sureserve, a London-listed provider of smart metering services to social housing landlords, and an announcement could be made tomorrow morning...
Mark "The Kleinmanator" Kleinman, City Editor of Sky News, is on a bit of a run of good form.
Earlier this week Kleimanator, a former boss and colleague during our time working on The Daily Telegraph, together smoked out Liontrust's interest in purchasing ailing Switzerland-listed asset manager GAM Holding. Below is a link to his scoop story and the confirmation:..
Apologies for the tardy victory lap Betavillers but I have been rather busy lately and hadn't noticed that the London-listed investment trust Caledonia Investments has now confirmed my original RARE Alert about it's interest in buying AIR-serve.
In case you don't recall, little old Betaville published a RARE alert last month about the takeover talks between Caledonia and AIR-serve's owners...
There is an old saying on Fleet Street: three makes a journalistic trend.
So, no wonder little Betaville's old boss, Richard "Fletch" Fletcher, decided splash his business section in The Times for the second time in several days on the sudden mini M&A boom following takeover approaches fo London-listed THG, Network International and Dechra Pharmaceuticals...
New deals are being announced on a daily basis at the moment, with the pharmaceutical sector one of the most buoyant for dealmaking.
The latest deal is GlaxoSmithKline's takeover of Canadian biopharmaceutical company Bellus Health for $14.75 a share or around £1.6 billion.
That price is double Bellus Health's closing price of $7.26!
Below is a link to the press release if you want to read all the detail of the deal:..
So, it looks like there really is something to Patrick Tooher's THG story from this weekend's Mail on Sunday.
The company has just confirmed it has received a takeover approach from Apollo, which is also pursuing Wood Group. Below is a link to the confirmation:..
The British newspapers and American wire services were jammed packed with corking deal scoops this weekend.
The Mail on Sunday, for example, carried a line about a possible take private of embattled online retail group THG by founder and chief executive Matthew Moulding, the company's chief executive...
Dominic "Dom" Walsh, veteran leisure hack on The Times business section, appears to be hearing similar things to little old Betaville on the M&G takeover situation.
This morning Dom reports that Macquarie is rumoured to be talking to multiple insurance companies, such as Phoenix, about mounting a joint bid for M&G, the FTSE 100-listed asset manager.
Fancy that!
Below is a link to Dom's piece:..
Having completely missed the Network International takeover story broken by Bloomberg at lunch time little old Betaville was glad to see FTSE 250-listed Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Scandinavian private equity house EQT and the Abu Dbabi Investment Authority confirm today's UNCOOKED alert. Below is the link to that piece:
https://www.betaville.co.uk/betaville-intelligence/sfs3j57c/ ..
Arch rivals at Bloomberg have dug out a rather good deals scoop.
Earlier this afternoon hacks at the newswire revealed that CVC Capital Partners, the UK-based private equity firm, was in talks with FTSE 250-listed Network International about a takeover of the Middle Eastern payments company and credit card processor. Below is the link:..
American rivals reported overnight that industrial conglomerate Emerson Electric is set to clinch National Instruments Corporation for around $8 billion...
[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].