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.
Take a huge bow Zak Mir.
The erudite Mir, now editor and co-founder of financial website Wall Street Wires, has just landed two gigantic M&A scoops in the space of 48 (trading) hours.
Last Friday morning Zak broke the rumour of a potential bid interest in Danish payment company Nets, which was subsequently confirmed by the company on Saturday evening. ..
Another day, another confirmation for a Betaville Intelligence story.
Today, it emerged private equity backed Red Ventures is buying Bankrate, the US personal finance website, for around $1.3 billion.
In case you missed it, here is a link to last week's Betaville Intelligence piece on Bankrate:
https://www.betaville.co.uk/exclusive/..
And today Ben Martin of The Sunday Telegraph writes Northgate's largest shareholders are piling pressure on the company to hold a formal sale process.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/07/01/northgate-investors-push-800m-sale-profits-dip/
That's more wishful thinking from Richard Bernstein, I suspect.....
I see wily Richard Bernstein was in the market this week talking up the prospects of a bid for van hire company Northgate, in which his Crystal Amber fund owns just over 4pc.
In a Bloomberg interview Bernstein is reported to have said he has won support for a sale of Northgate from shareholders owning 20pc of the company...
Which aggressive hedge fund is currently rather worried about its loans to a top flight European football club that has just seen its chairman's investment vehicle come under intense scrutiny from a national banking regulator?
If you think you have an idea do email ben@betaville.co.uk...
I see US financial news aggregator Benzinga is once again completely mis-representing little old Betaville's paywall protected Betaville Intelligence articles...
Pembridge Resources is pressing ahead with its standard listing move and little old Betaville understands the bookbuilding process has already started.
That's bad news for AIM, which has seen the number of companies listed on the junior market decline over the last decade. According to the London Stock Exchange's website there were 1694 companies listed on AIM in 2007 and that has fallen almost every year since then. ..
Tucked away on page 3 of the news pages of today's business section in The Sunday Times is a little item from one of my favourite hacks, the multi award winning Oliver Shah, about how Credit Suisse and a Saudi Arabian diplomat have settled a multi-million pound lawsuit over an investment in involving a skyscraper development in London's Docklands. Here is the link:..
Stockmarket cassandras at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan were out in force yesterday, warning of impending market crash.
So, several leading British newspapers, such as The Times, took those warnings seriously by splashing their business sections on the strategists' gloomy predictions. Here is a link to today's piece in the The Times: ..
Aveva, the software engineering company, is said to be preparing its defences ahead of a potential approach from a mystery suitor.
Some sources claiming to be familiar with the matter suggested French giant Schneider Electric is once again weighing a deal with London-listed Aveva.
However, one banker close the situation said: "it's not clear how 'real' this situation is."..
There is a fun piece in The Times today from Martin Waller about leaks on M&A deals. Yes, you read it correctly - leaks!
Waller's intro made me giggle, so here is the link if you missed the tale from the old hack:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tracking-down-the-source-of-m-a-leaks-rjgtpmkrr..
If you have a spare five minutes at lunch then give Alistair Osborne's column in the The Times a read...
I see almost all of the business sections of the quality British newspapers ran with the Amazon-for-Ocado bid rumour today, with some publications even dedicating a whole page lead to the takeover speculation.
No surprises, there, I suppose. Amazon's sensational $13.7 billion move on Whole Foods in the US late last week has got tongues wagging in the Square Mile about how the American online retail giant plans to take on the British grocery market...
Little old Betaville is in a particularly good mood this morning as another Intelligence scoopette has been confirmed.
This morning German broadcast giant Prosiebensat1 announced it has sold online travel Etraveli to CVC Capital Partners, one of Europe's largest private equity firms, for just over EURO 500 million. Here is a link to the Financial Times piece on the news:..
Mark Dixon, the Monaco-based billionaire, last night sold over 27 million IWG (formerly Regus) shares at 345p a share, making himself almost £100 million.
I guess that puts paid to the idea that Dixon, the founder of IWG and largest shareholder, is currently in talks with various bidders, which is what was reported last week by little old Betaville's rivals...
[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].