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.
Bloomberg's top commodity writer, Javier Blas, appears to be suggesting that mining giant Glencore might have put itself "in play".
In case you don't recall, Glencore launched a hostile bid for Canadian rival Teck Resources ahead of the latter's demerger of its coal assets...
Hacks at Bloomberg have dug out a tale about how Temenos is attempting to rekindle talks with private equity firms about a leveraged buy-out. Below is a link to the piece:
Another day, another deal that involves Peel Hunt, the City of London stockbroker and advisory firm.
This morning it emerged Peel Hunt advised London-listed Fulham Shore, the operator Franco Manca and The Real Greek, on its £93.4 - or 14.15p a share - sale Japanese outfit Toridoll. Below is a link to the announcement:..
I see some of London's top stockbrokers have been whining about the lack of dealmaking.
Indeed, yesterday Peel Hunt warned it would be marginally loss-making in the twelve months to the end of March because it hasn't worked on enough floatations and takeovers.
But this morning FTSE 250-listed Rathbones announced a deal to buy Investec's wealth management company for £839 million. Below is a link to the announcement:..
French cosmetics giant L'Oreal has won the auction for Aesop, the upmarket soap brand being sold off by Brazilian group Natura & Co.
L'Oreal is reportedly paying $2.5 billion for Aesop. Below is a link to announcement from L'Oreal:
Today is turning into another Merger Monday. So far this morning it's been announced that:
1. Glencore has made a $23 billion hostile all-stock takeover offer for Canadian mining company Teck Resources Ltd. Below is a link to the Glencore announcement:..
So, perhaps Merve Metcalfe of Dean Street Advisors has a point after all.
His interview about cheap valuations and take privates of British conmpanies on the Powerscourt Friday Fix podcast series went out on a Friday and by Monday morning American private equity giant Blackstone had announced the £500 million purchase of London-listed property company Industrials REIT.
Metcalfe, though, doesn't appear to have any involvement with that deal...
Here is something you don't see very often: a senior City investment banker talking openly ON THE RECORD about dealmaking in Britain and abroad, regulation and a smattering of politics via a podcast hosted by financial flacks at Powerscourt...
Most of the world's merger arbitrage community would probably prefer to see the back of insurance broking giant Aon after it's deal to merge with Willis Towers Watson collapsed in the summer of 2021.
But now there is a serious suggestion that the sleeping insurance giant is awakening again and on the prowl for another takeover deal...
So, Airbus has backed out of the deal for Atos's cybersecurity unit following months of on-off talks.
Now, I guess the market will never really know whether Airbus's decision was influenced by Sir Chris Hohn's (see part 20 - https://www.www.betaville.co.uk/betaville-intelligence/rare-alert-atos-said-to-part-20/) outcry against the purchase of a stake in Atos's Evidian division...
It's good to see independent bloggers leading the way again on the deals beat.
Earlier today Joel Bel Bruno, a Hollywood beat reporter, broke the story on his Substack hosted newsletter The Intersect about how Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, has asked his advisers to explore an acquisition of AMC Entertainment, the US-listed cinema chain...
Bill "Baby face" Ackman, the billionaire hedge fund manager, has discovered that journalism isn't actually as easy as it looks.
On Friday March 17 Ackman tweeted:..
The private equity arm of Caledonia Investments, the FTSE 250-listed investment trust, is said to be one of the companies in talks to buy privately-owned AIR-serv, which is being spun out of CSC Service Works Inc.
People following the situation said Caledonia's private capital arm is competing in an auction for AIR-serv with several other private equity firms, such as Exponent...
One of Aurinia Pharmaceutical's largest shareholders has formally submitted an application for a seat on the board of the US-listed company and reiterated its request for the group to consider a formal sale of the business.
The MKT Tactical Fund, which owns 3.2pc of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, submitted the request for the board seat this week to Aurinia's chief executive, Peter Greenleaf, and chairman, George Milne Junior...
The chief bear has written a powerfully argued opinion piece for the venerable Financial Times.
Carson Block - the founder of Muddy Waters Capital, the deep dive research-driven firm - argues Britain should use Brexit to scrap the short selling disclosure rules that the European Union created following the financial crisis...
Apologies for the tardy posting Betavillers; little old Betaville was out last night with a few old colleagues down the Market Porter (a pub in the Borough Market area of London) with a few other financial hacks known as the "Dream Team".
That has meant it's taken little old Betaville a bit longer than normal (because a fair few ales were consumed yesterday evening) to catch up with today's events...
One Swiss Bank, the Switzerland-based bank and wealth manager, has come under the spotlight amid bid talk.
People following the situation have heard rumours One Swiss Bank was approached last month about a possible takeover.
Deltec International Group, a Bahamas-based financial services company, was rumoured to be behind the approach for One Swiss Bank, said these people following the situation...
Paratek Pharmaceuticals, the US-listed biopharmaceutical company, is at the centre of takeover speculation.
People following following the situation have heard rumours Paratek has attracted takeover interest.
Some people following the situation suggested the suitor circling Paratek is a private equity firm.
To be clear, the above story is RARE.
In case you don't remember the definition of RARE I have pasted it below:..
[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].