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.
Rivals at StreetInsider have deicded to follow little old Betaville's most recent part 11 UNCOOKED Alert about Ageas, the Franco-Belgian insurance company.
This afternoon the US-based title published a tale that appeared to nudge the story forward, claiming a private equity firm has submitted unsolicited offer to Ageas. Below is a link to the tale:..
Hat tip to Adam McNestrie.
Little old Betaville's first ever outside editorial contributor saw one of his recent stories confirmed this morning.
Today, Aim-listed Kingswood Holdings, an independent financial advisor consolidator, said it has retained advisers from corporate finance house Houlihan Lokey to work on a sale of its UK operations. Below is the link to the statement:..
There has been a somewhat muted response this morning to Mark, "The Kleinmanator", Kleinman's scoop about Macquarie weighing an offer for FTSE 100-listed fund manager M&G.
Below is a link to the Mark's scoop, which contains some strong detail, including the fact that Macquarie had appointed advisers from Morgan Stanley to work on the deal for M&G...
Mark "The Kleinmanator" Kleinman of Sky News just popped up with a corking story about a potential takeover of M&G, the FTSE 250-listed fund manager.
According to Kleinman (a former colleague on The Daily Telegraph), Australian banking giant Macquarie is weighing a £5 billion plus bid for for M&G...
Hacks at the Wall Street Journal are on a bit of a roll, landing a string of deal scoops in recent days.
The latest is a tale about Apollo, the private equity firm, trying to buy Arconic Corporation, a US-listed parts manufacturer.
Apollo submitted a bid for Arconic in February and has debt financing in place, reports the Wall Street Journal. Below is a link to the WSJ Scoop:..
First they suggested it was Merck.
Now hacks at the Wall Street Journal claim Pfizer is in "ealy-stage" talks to buy Seagen, the US-listed biotechnology company worth more than $30 billion.
To be fair, the Wall Street Journal does report that Seagen's sale talks with Merck broke down last year.
Anyway a deal for Seagen appears to be back on. Below is a link to the WSJ scoop:..
There are plenty of takeover rumours to chew over this weekend.
M&G, for example, popped up in several British newspaper stock market reports. Financial hacks at The Times and the Daily Mail reported that the FTSE 100-listed investment manager was yesterday at the centre of bid speculation...
So, Cogstate has finally admitted it received a takeover approach and has been in talks over the last few weeks.
Although the Australian-listed testing company didn't reveal the identity of its suitor little old Betaville assumes the bidder was Dassault Systemes, the French conglomerate.
Anyway, Cogstate said talks have now ended and alongside that bit of bad news unveiled what looks to be a nasty warning! ..
Apologies for the tardy follow up Betavillers.
Little old Betaville was out early evening with some old chums that I used to work with at The Daily Telegraph, soI'm only just catching up with the confirmation to yesterday's UNCOOKED alert about John Wood Group, the FTSE 250-listed oil engineering and consulting business. Below is the link in case you missed it:..
Arch rivals at Bloomberg have just revealed that Euronext, the pan European bourse, is weighing a EURO 5 billion takeover of wealth technology platform Allfunds. Below is a link to the Bloomie story:..
I see Sir Chris Hohn has thrown has thrown his oar in the Airbus - Atos deal talks, urging the former to give up on its pursuit of the latter's multi-billion EURO cyber security division. Below is a link to yesterday's story on the matter:
https://www.ft.com/content/0ecb9bfc-732d-4525-91c0-4ac6089c194a ..
Hat tip to Jamie "Nimmers" Nimmo of The Sunday Times.
Yesterday, the intrepid hack dug out a corking line about Elliott's interest in providing the financing to bidders interested in purchasing Manchester United.
According to the original piece by Nimmers, activist hedge fund Elliott would be interested in lending to any potential Manchester United purchaser and also taking a minority stake in the Premier League football club. Below is a link to Nimmers's scoop:..
Arch rivals at Bloomberg have finally decided to follow up little old Betaville's UNCOOKED Alerts on London-listed investor Digital 9 Infrastructure.
3i Infrastructure, another FTSE250-listed investment manager, has been considering making an offer for Digital 9 Infrastructure, according to Bloomie. Below is a link to the Bloomberg piece:..
There has been a flurry of stories about the Manchester United sale process over the last 24 hours, so little old Betaville thought it wise to update the runners and riders list.
Indeed, sports hacks at The Daily Telegraph - my former employer - this morning revealed that the "Saudi Arabians" are looking at putting together an offer for Manchester United...
An outfit called Eliot and Luther has just made a move on Audioboom, the Aim-listed podcasting business that was last year subject to multiple takeover rumours.
Eliot and Luther said it has bought 10pc of Audioboom with a view to building a shareholding of just under 30pc as part of a consortium of investors...
This morning Atos confirmed Airbus has made an approach for its cyber security unit and is now in talks about a deal. Below is the link to this morning's press release:
[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].