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.
I see hacks at the venerable FT have finally woken up to what Betaville has been banging on about for several weeks: a multi-billion dollar takeover bid for CBOE, the massive US options exchange. Below is the link to the FT story:
https://www.ft.com/content/c05613d0-601d-42a6-a191-18788549970b..
If you are following the Meggitt takeover situation then Oliver "Shahsy" Shah's fanstastic on the record interview with Sir Nigel Rudd is a must read...
There is a bit of a buzz this afternoon around Pensana, another company connected to the electric vehicle market.
The talk is there could be some further progress with regards to the company's talks with the UK government's £1 billion Automotive Transformation Fund, which is looking to support the national transition to electric vehicles...
Betaville has been hearing some interesting things about Path Investments for a few weeks and today the company announced a reverse takeover of an electric car and energy storage company for £32 million. Below is the link today's announcement:..
It's been a while since Nelson Peltz, the American corporate raider, has had a crack at a London-listed company but now City scribblers are suggesting he may have set his sights on Unilever, the FTSE 100-listed consumer goods giant.
Well, that's according to Bryce Elder's excellent City Insider column in the venerable Financial Times. Below is the link to his piece, which appears to be based on Bernstein research...
Remember Mast Energy Developments?
Well let me remind you if you don't: Mast is the little reserve power provider that caught Betaville's attention back in June amid talk of big contract wins.
Anyway, Betaville hears from well informed types that it has lined up £10 million debt facility from a major industry player and more power deals could be on the way.
Still developing.....
CVC Capital's £767 million takeover of Polish vodka maker Stock Spirits slipped under Betaville's radar yesterday.
Anyway, just in case you missed the announcement I have pasted the link below:..
There is an M&A frenzy taking place in the London market unseen since 2007, which means analysts are prepared to wildly speculate about, er, anything.
So, the chaps at Peel Hunt have just released a note suggesting a trade buyer might pay 300p a share for aerospace and defence firm Senior.
Readers might recall that earlier this year Senior received multiple indicative takeover approaches from Lone Star, the US private equity firm...
The counter bids keep on flowing.
This time FTSE 250-listed Meggitt has received a 900p a share rival approach from TransDigm, another US-listed aerospace and defence company. Below is the link to today's announcement:
NortonLifeLock Inc's £6 billion acquistion of London-listed Avast appears to have been sealed. Below is a link to the details of the transaction:
The venerable Wall Street Journal has just landed another great scoop about Canadian Pacific Railway weighing a fresh counter $300 a share offer for Kansas City Southern, the US-listed railroad operator. Below is the link:
Elliott Advisers is said to be the activist fund accumulating a stake in SSE, the FTSE 100-listed power giant.
People following the situation said the US firm has been building the stake for several weeks although its not clear what size shareholding Elliott has got and whether it plans to disclose it to the market soon.
It's also not clear whether Elliott plans to launch an activist campaign against SSE similar to the one it is waging against GlaxoSmithKline...
Shares in Atos have surged this afternoon almost 8pc amid a report there could be a multi-billion Euro takeover bid for the IT group.
Now, I can't link to the article as the publication that published the article, Dealreporter, is behind a strong and expensive paywall.
Some might see some irony in that!..
Sometimes deals take a few days to get done; at other times they can take few weeks or even months.
Occsaionally, though, it takes a year for the transaction to be signed.
Well, that's the case with Medtronic's $1 billion plus purchase of Intertsect ENT, which has just been announced this morning...
Charming Crispin's firm has just taken out a short bet against AMC Entertainment Holdings, the meme stock driven to astronomical highs by the Wallstreetbets retail punter crowd.
Well, it isn't the famous Brexiteer himself taking the short position but rather his colleague, James Hanbury, one of the fund managers at Odey Asset Management. Below is the the link to the FT piece on the move...
[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].