A cheeky website about deals, dealmakers and anything else I find interesting. Edited by Ben Harrington. If you have a tip or want to discuss a story please feel free to email Betaville at ben@betaville.co.uk. 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, 8 February 2019, 3:35 pm
The company that installs panic buttons and bed sensors in the homes of the elderly has been put up for sale by one of the City's most secretive private equity firms and its lenders for up to £500 million.
City sources said bankers at Jefferies have been appointed by Charterhouse and some of Tunstall's debt holders to find a buyer for the company following a financial restructuring a couple of years ago...
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersThursday, 7 February 2019, 4:02 pm
Thursday, 7 February 2019, 11:07 am
Hat tip to friend and occasional colleague John "The Ridge" Collingridge, deputy City editor of The Sunday Times, who revealed last summer that Thomas Cook was once again weighing a sale of its airline.
Below is a link to John's scoop:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/thomas-cook-eyes-break-up-with-airline-sale-xzkwhh2n3..
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Wednesday, 6 February 2019, 11:54 pm
Betaville stumbled across an actual piece of interesting news whilst scrolling through Linked In today, which is unusual as the "social/business network site" is mostly filled with self-congratulatory puff pieces about job promotions, announced deals and new business ventures...
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersWednesday, 6 February 2019, 1:11 pm
Tuesday, 5 February 2019, 5:58 pm
The Swedish billionaire squire is at it again. Stefan Persson was in the last few days hoovering up more stock in Hennes & Maurtiz, the company founded by his father, Erling Persson, back in 1947.
According to Bloomberg, Persson just spent around $153 million on 10.4 million shares in Hennes & Mauritz in the last few days...
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Monday, 4 February 2019, 9:56 pm
My old chum Neil "Neily" Craven at the Mail on Sunday landed a great follow up to his scoop last weekend about Marks & Spencer's tie up with online grocer Ocado.
Yesterday's piece had the nitty gritty detail about the deal, so if your still interested I have pasted the link below:..
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Saturday, 2 February 2019, 12:56 pm
So, the venerable Financial Times have had a good stab at looking into why maverick Mike Ashley is hoovering up every distressed retailer in sight.
Below is a link to the excellent piece in today's hard copy edition.
https://www.ft.com/content/bfcf7bc4-2633-11e9-b329-c7e6ceb5ffdf
However, Betaville isn't 100pc convinced the FT have got to the bottom of the whole story...
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Friday, 1 February 2019, 10:00 am
Betaville read with amusement the fall out from Covea's failed takeover bid for insurance giant Scor.
The acrimony is palpable with both companies making all sorts allegations (which for legal reasons won't be repeated here). In case you missed it, below are the links to the relevant stories:
https://www.ft.com/content/a87f19ce-23be-11e9-b329-c7e6ceb5ffdf..
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Betaville IntelligenceThursday, 31 January 2019, 8:45 am
Oh look - I see RhythmOne has confirmed Betaville's scoop from a couple of days ago.
Below is a link to the confirmation and also a link to Betaville's piece published publicly an hour before Mark "the Kleinmanator" Kleinman of Sky News claimed the same story as an "exclusive":..
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Wednesday, 30 January 2019, 6:05 pm
HMV, Sofa.com and now Patisserie Valerie.
Those are the latest ailing retailers (of sorts) that have been linked in recent days with a potential (rescue?) bid from maverick entrepreneur Mike Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United Football Club.
Indeed, below is a link to yesterday's piece in the Daily Mail about Ashley's interest in the collapsed coffee shop chain...
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Betaville IntelligenceTuesday, 29 January 2019, 6:15 pm
RhythmOne, a London-listed digital advertising company, is in talks to merge with rival Taptica to create a business with over $600 million of revenues.
People claiming to be familiar with the matter suggested Taptica has held detailed discussions about a combination with RhythmOne, the company formerly known as Blinkx...
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Sunday, 27 January 2019, 3:42 pm
Betaville's friends and colleagues on the Sunday papers were clearly working hard last week at digging up stories that make you perk up over your Sunday morning fry up.
Indeed, one of the stand out scoops of the weekend was Neil Craven's blockbuster jackanory in the Mail on Sunday about Marks & Spencer's talks about a combination of sorts with online grocer Ocado. Below is the link:..
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Betaville IntelligenceFriday, 25 January 2019, 8:27 pm
Management Resource Solutions, a London-listed mining equipment company, is said to be plotting an equity fundraising.
People claiming to be familiar with the matter said Management Resource Solutions, which operates in Australia and Papua New Guinea, is looking to raise up to £5 million, possibly via a placing of new stock with investors...
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Thursday, 24 January 2019, 9:49 am
Betaville was intrigued to read yesterday in The Times that David Scott, founder of coffee chain Druckers, is planning to buy ailing Patisserie Valerie out of administration.
Mr Scott even told The Daily Telegraph, my former employer, he "has lined up advisers and will make a bid for most of the remaining 122 outlets," adding “nobody else knows this business as well as me - I know the whole thing backwards"...
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Betaville IntelligenceWednesday, 23 January 2019, 11:10 pm
Apologies for the tardy post - Betaville has been travelling all day without access to the internet.
Anyway, I see London-listed plastics group RPC and Wall Street buy-out titan Apollo finally announced the deal to take the company private for around 780p a share.
Loyal readers of this website wouldn't have been too surprised to learn about some of the details of today's following last Friday's RARE Alert. Below is a link to that piece:..
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Betaville IntelligenceTuesday, 22 January 2019, 10:49 pm
Betaville has to admit it's puzzling that there was no deal announcement following yesterday's definitive report from the Wall Street Journal about the £3 billion takeover of RPC by Apollo being announced today.
In case you missed it, below is a link to the WSJ story following Betaville's Friday RARE on the topic:..
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Betaville IntelligenceMonday, 21 January 2019, 8:07 pm
Oh look: now the venerable Wall Street Journal and my former employer, The Daily Telegraph, are reporting Apollo's £3 billion takeover of RPC is set to be announced tomorrow morning. Below are the links:..
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Betaville IntelligenceMonday, 21 January 2019, 3:17 pm
Bloomberg have just chucked out a piece saying the lending banks, including HSBC, have "underwritten a multi-billion leveraged debt financing to back" the buy-out of RPC by Apollo Global Management.
Now, loyal readers will be well aware that Betaville published a RARE alert on Friday evening regarding plastics maker RPC but it wasn't quite as definitve as Bloomie regarding the underwriting of Apollo's debt financing for the deal...
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Sunday, 20 January 2019, 6:44 pm
Once you get past the acres of Brexit coverage there were some decent business jackanories knocking about in the Sunday papers today.
One story that caught Betaville's eye was a tucked away on page 2 of the Mail on Sunday's business section about how Mike Ashley is planning to hire new PR "experts" to look after his "growing retail group". Below is a link to Neil Craven's article:..
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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].