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.

HSBC's hedgie leaders and laggards: Saba Capital tops the leaderboard; Lansdowne Princay Fund is Europe's worst performer

Thursday, 26 March 2020, 10:10 pm

Ping! HSBC's HedgeWeekly publication arrives with the performance figures of Europe's best and worst performing hedge funds.

Now, given Crispin Odey has been a big bear since 2015 and this weekend the old buffer told Betaville he had made £115 million in March you might expect his flagship fund to be the best performer...

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Tchenguiz carted out of FirstGroup - Part 3

Wednesday, 25 March 2020, 7:04 pm

It sounds like there is more to the sale of Robert Tchenguiz's 6pc shareholding in FirstGroup than meets the eye.

Last week, brokers to the flamboyant property entrepreneur forced him to sell is investment after he failed to come up with the "margin" (cash to fund the leveraged position held by spreadbetting firms), say people following the situation...

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Is the tide turning for Odey the Brexiteer? - part 38

Wednesday, 18 March 2020, 11:07 am

So, according to Bloomberg, Crispin Odey's uber-bearishly positioned fund is already up by 20pc this month.

Now, it would be easy to take pop at the old cassandra for shorting the market into a public health crisis but the thing is he has been directionally short for the last four years and, as a result, suffered excruciating losses over the last five years...

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Punters placing bets LVMH's $16 billion takeover of Tiffany could be in trouble, according to Gasparino - Part 2

Monday, 16 March 2020, 9:33 pm

Wow: Tiffany is down almost 10pc, trading around $115 a share.

That's quite a discount to LVMH's $135 / $16 billion cash offer price. I guess Gasparino was barking up the right tree on Friday with his note about punters placing bets on the deal falling through - although I'm not quite sure how that would work in practicality...

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Return of the Griffin...

Monday, 16 March 2020, 10:54 am

I realise people, politicians and markets are rather preocupied at the moment with something very imporant but for a bit of light relief I note the return of Gerard Griffin to Britain's business pages.

Now, younger readers will likely to be saying: "who he?"...

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Punters placing bets LVMH's $16 billion takeover of Tiffany could be in trouble, according to Gasparino

Friday, 13 March 2020, 6:49 pm

Market turbulence and fears over a recession is clearly hitting dealmaking. Today, for example, Aston Martin and Lawrence Stroll have re-cut the fundraising deal with the Tommy Hilfiger tycoon as the embattled carmaker needed an extra £20 million.

Stroll, though, is getting a better deal with his consortium partners receiving 25pc of the company in return for £171m at a price of £2.25 per share...

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Deals, deals, deals...in a bear market

Wednesday, 11 March 2020, 9:01 pm

It's hard for market practitioners to get enthusiastic about bid stories in this (almost official) bear market.

But let's not forget there have been three major deals announced this week - and it's only Wednesday!

On Monday, for example, insurance broker Aon agreed a $30 billion all share deal with Willis Towers Watson and Tesco announced the £8.2 billion sale of its Thai and Malaysian business to CP Group...

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Betaville Intelligence

RARE ALERT: Reach4entertainment Enterprises said to ...

Tuesday, 10 March 2020, 4:25 pm

Marc Boyan, the chief executive of Aim-listed Reach4entertainment Enterprises, is said to have informally sounded out M&C Saatchi, the London-listed advertising agency, about a takeover of the business.

People following the situation said Lord Michael Grade, the former chief executive of ITV who sits on the board of Reach4entertainment as chairman, recently approached M&C Saatchi on Mr Boyan's behalf with the approach...

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Is the tide turning for Odey the Brexiteer? - part 36

Monday, 9 March 2020, 8:55 am

Perhaps charming Crispin will be proved right after all?

Two weeks ago I interviewed the the veteran hedge fund manager and asked him whether he thought the FTSE 100 index could end up at 5000 by the end of the year.

Odey - whose predictions of a stockmarket crash over the last four years have so far been proved to be spectacularly wrong - said that the FTSE 100 at 5000 was "highly probable". Below is a link to the interview in the Mail on Sunday:..

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Rayner Surgical Group said to be on the block for around £300 million - sources

Friday, 6 March 2020, 10:20 am

There are a few pieces out this week from Bloomberg about how recent market turbulence is starting to hit dealmaking.

But it's still pretty lively in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Take, for example, this week's announcement from US giant Thermo Fisher about its $11.5 billion acquisition of Qiagen, the Dutch diagnostics testing group...

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REVEALED: KKR said to be vying with Carlyle to buy Dr Martens for over £300 million - sources

Thursday, 5 March 2020, 9:32 pm

KKR, the US-listed private equity giant, has emerged as a surprise frontrunner to buy Dr Martens for over £300 million.

Sources familiar with the matter said KKR - the former owner of pharmacy giant Boots that was immortalised in the bestselling book Barbarians At The Gate - is vying with Carlyle, another Wall Street buy-out firm, to buy Dr Martens from Permira, a European investment firm...

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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].