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.
Ping! An email arrives with what hedgies dub the "sports pages".
These "sports pages" are also known as HSBC's Hedge Weekly, which is a performance review of European hedge funds.
Last year, charming Crispin Odey - a leading City Brexiteer who runs Odey Asset Management - topped the leaderboard but this year it seems to be populated by a bunch of funds nobody has ever heard of, such as Muirfield GSE Partners, Golden China Fund and Tonga Partners...
Apologies for the lack posts in the last 24 hours Betavillers - I have been tied up on a few things.
I note, though, that UK Oil & Gas confirmed Tuesday evening's scoopette about the company's surprise equity fundraising. As usual, Betaville had to endure the usual torrent of abuse from Twitter trolls claiming my story was rubbish...
Another year, another UKOG placing.
People claiming to be familiar with the matter UK Oil & Gas is said to be tapping up investors for fresh capital, again.
The Aim-listed company, which is developing the so-called Gatwick Gusher, is looking to raise between £3 million and £5 million at around 1p a share, said people claiming to be familiar with the matter.
The people added that brokers at WH Ireland are working on the deal for UK Oil & Gas...
The owner of Drapers magazine is in talks to buy Centaur Media's financial division for up to £5 million.
Sources familiar with the matter said Metropolis International is closing in on the acquisition of titles such as Money Marketing and Mortgage Strategy after entering "advanced negotiations" with Centaur Media about the deal...
Motif Bio, a clinic stage biopharmaceutical company, is tapping investors for up to $3 million.
People claiming to be familiar with the situation said Motif Bio is looking to raise the fresh capital at a 25pc discount to last Friday's opening price.
The proceeds from the equtiy fundraising will be used as working capital, said people claiming to be familiar with the matter...
Is it Mike Ashley day, today?
The maverick entrepreneur appears to making on-the-record comments everywhere this morning about everything from Arcadia to Debenhams.
To be fair, it was Deidre Hipwell who dug out some great quotes from Ashley (probably yesterday) about Sir Philip Green's Arcadia that made a superlative splash in The Times business section. Below is the link:..
This time last year Argo Blockchain, London's first ever cryptocurrency stock, was preparing to list on the London Stock Exchange to raise £25 million.
The company, which hoped to mine for crypto currencies in China, rode the bitcoin mania wave by listing at 16p with the backing of some serious cornerstone investors and snotty PR advisers from Tancredi...
Dear readers, I hope you don't mind if little old Betaville blows his own trumpet rather loud this evening after not only one but two of this cheeky website's RARE Alerts were confirmed in the last 24 hours...
Private equity firms are said to be circling Inmarsat, the London-listed satellite company.
People claiming to be familiar with the matter said Apax and Warburg Pincus are rumoured to be working on a plan to take Inmarsat private.
However, it's not clear whether the private equity firms have submitted a formal offer to Inmarsat's board - although one person claiming to be familiar with the matter suggested there is speculation an approach may be imminent...
TomCo Energy, a London-listed shale exploration company, is said to be working on an equity fundraising.
People claiming to be familiar with the matter said TomCo is looking to raise around £500,000, possibly via a placing with equity investors.
It's thought the new stock could be priced at between 2.0p and 2.5p, said people claiming to be familiar with the matter...
Oh look - Betaville notes Solidium has just announced it has bought a 5.1pc/EUR 205 million shareholding in Nokian Tyres, the niche tyre maker that has featured on Betaville Intelligence over the last couple of months.
The Finnish soveriegn wealth fund paid EUR 29.3 a share for its stock. Below is a link to the press release:..
Tucked away in the top left hand corner of page 2 of today's The Times was a notice about how Alistair Osborne, chief business commentator, has been named financial journalist of the year at the annual City of London Wealth Management Awards. ..
Betaville reckons it is worthwhile reading the newspapers in the old fashioned way: by literally picking it up the newspaper and reading it myself from front to back.
Why? Well, you never know what type of juicy nuggets you might find tucked in away in diaries, stock market reports and nibs columns...
I was intrigued to read in yesterday's venerable Financial Times that the likes of News Corp, Fitch, Moody's and S&P Global are queing up to pay £1 billion of the owner of Mergermarket, one of Betaville's first employers. Below is a link to the FT piece:
https://www.ft.com/content/5a79d412-444d-11e9-a965-23d669740bfb..
If your into M&A crystal ball-gazing then Will Turvill's splash piece in the Mail on Sunday's business section is well worth a read...
Betaville is in a bad mood.
Readers might be wondering why. Well, after stumbling across a fun little scoopette over a sumptuous lunch this week Betaville got cracking with the proper journalistic protocol of calling the relevant parties this morning to provide the customary "opportunity to comment"...
Betaville has encountered plenty of bankers recently moaning about the lack dealmaking activity in the UK because of the "uncertainty" caused by the looming March 29 Brexit day.
But there was one deal where Brexit didn't even register as a risk factor: Saputo's £1 billion takeover of British cheesemaker Dairy Crest.
Why?..
Hat tip to political blog Guido Fawkes for landing the story about Russell Chambers emerging as a key funder to The Independent Group, the new centrist political party foreshadowed on Betaville. Below is a link to the piece on Guido Fawkes:
https://order-order.com/2019/03/05/tony-blairs-favourite-banker-fundraising-tig/..
[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].