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.
Engie's chief executive, Isabelle Kocher, talked about buying Suez with the French government last year without telling her board, according to Bloomberg.
Today's piece caught my eye as I was scanning the Bloomberg terminal as Betaville reported a rather similar tale around the time Miss Kocher is said to have been talking to the French government about buying Suez. I have pasted the link to that piece below:..
Simon English of the Evening Standard's business section yesterday unleased another fine column and ultimately suggested Marks & Spencer should merge with John Lewis. Below is link to Simon's piece:
https://www.standard.co.uk/business/ms-s-future-be-small-be-ethical-and-buy-john-lewis-a4330336.html..
NMC Health, the London-listed private hospitals company based in the United Arab Emirates, may see an "unusual" investor come onto its shareholder register that could spark another round of takeover speculation.
Earlier this week, lenders to two of NMC Health's largest Gulf-based shareholders forced them to sell $493 million of stock, around 15pc, via an accelerated bookbuild. The share sale was believed to have been a margin call by Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse...
Splashed across the front page of the venerable Financial Times is a "scoop" generated by an interview with Mark Carney, the guvnor of the Bank of England, by Lionel Barber, the outgoing editor of the paper.
It's a brilliant interview to land but just a shame that Mr Carney trots out so many statements of the obvious, such as "it's generally true that there's much less ammunition for all the major central banks [to fight recessions] than they previously had"...
This doesn't look good: two of the larger Abu Dhabi-based shareholders in NMC Health are trying to offload $490 million of stock in the embattled gulf-based healthcare group via their lenders amid a bear raid from Muddy Waters, the most feared short seller. Below is the top-line from the this evening's announcement and link:..
If Betaville had a pound for every time an analyst, banker or portfolio manager talked up the possibility of Sir Brian Souter taking the bus and rail company he founded, Stagecoach, private I would definately be richer than I am now (well, to be honest that wouldn't be too hard to achieve)...
It's seems Betaville was being a bit harsh in my last post on the charming old buffer when I wrote his fund was on course to finish as one of the worst performing European hedge funds of 2019. Below is the link to that article:
https://www.www.betaville.co.uk/news/is-the-tide-turning-for-odey-the-brexiteer-the-ser/..
They have been feted as Britain's top rainmakers. Yes, that's Sir Simon Robey and Simon Warshaw. Ever since they left their respective megabanks (Morgan Stanley and UBS) in 2013 and set up Robey Warshaw much smoke has been blown up their respective bottoms about how brilliant they are at advising some of Britain's biggest companies on mergers & acquisitions...
Having worked as a financial hack for the last fifteen years I guess it wasn't too hard to predict there will be plenty of "prediction" pieces at this time of the year.
How else you do fill a newspaper, website or Bloomborg terminal during a news vacuum at the end/beginning of the year?
Perhaps the most bizarre prediction piece came from Matthew Lynn, a business columnist for The Daily Telegraph, my former employer...
Competitors like to write off little old Betaville but this website was punching above its weight in 2019, landing a series of exclusive genuine "scoops" throughout the year...
There may be some interest in Swissport after all.
Readers might recall that Betaville reported late last month China's embattled HNA Group is once again trying to offload Swissport, the airport cargo handling group, via bankers from NM Rothschild and boutique firm Benedetto Gartland & Company.
The heavily indebted Chinese conglomerate has tried to sell Swissport before but so far there have not really been any takers...
As you can imagine it's rather quiet in the London market today for the obvious reason - 95pc of the City of London are on holiday.
But little old Betaville never stops working. So, I was intrigued by today's TR1 filing in Burford Capital, the litigation funder that has been severely mauled by notorious short seller Muddy Waters...
So farewell Genteel Hustler.
One of Britain's best young financial hacks, William Turvill, is leaving these shores for sunnier climes in Vancouver, Canada.
During his time on the Mail on Sunday's business section Turvill landed multiple scoops around the collapse and potential takeover British steel and was a deft interviewer of heavyweight businessmen, managing to elicit unique, insightful and, occasionally, highly amusing quotes...
The vicious spat between notorious short seller Muddy Waters and FTSE 100-listed healthcare group NMC Health continues unabated.
This morning Carson Block's outfit pinged financial hacks with a fresh note. It starts off by saying:
"Muddy Waters Capital LLC believes that NMC Health’s response to our December 17, 2019 report was misleading, and outright false in certain portions. MW expects to comment more comprehensively on NMC going forward..."..
It was good to see former Telegraph colleague Alistair "Acerbic" Osborne, now of the The Times, sticking up for rival hacks at the Financial Times in his column in today's business section. Below is a link to Alistair's column, one of the best business reads in the UK press:..
Tucked away in the Evening Standard's City section is a suggestion that Carson Block's next target in 2020 might be FTSE 100-listed Rolls Royce.
Now, to be clear I have no clue who Muddy Waters plans to target next but the short seller does appear to be having a bit of field day with UK-listed stocks, such as NMC Health and Burford Capital...
One of Betaville's favourite City commentators has produced another fine column today.
Simon English of the Evening Standard's City pages is his usual amusing and insightful self with today's piece entitled: "if it aint fixed don't broke it".
If you have a spare moment Betaville recommends giving it a read...
Oh look - 3i has just confirmed Betaville's scoopette from last week about the private equity firm's plot to sell Aspen Pumps.
In the end rival buy-out firm Inflexion - led by dealmaker Simon Turner - snapped up the specialist pump manufacturer that designs, manufactures and distributes specialised mini pumps that remove condensate water from air conditioning and refrigeration systems...
Are you are wondering why FTSE 100-listed NMC Health's shares are down 20pc this morning? Well, it's because notorious short seller Muddy Waters has just released its first note on the gulf-based healthcare company.
Now, I'm not going to repeat the allegations from Muddy Waters - which hit the headlines earlier this year with its allegations about Burford Capital - here but obviously Carson Block's outfit hasn't been particularly complimentary...
Perhaps it isn't all bad news for Crispin Odey: his chum, British prime minister Boris Johnson, won a huge majority for the Tories on Friday.
That comes after Odey called on British business leaders to back Boris in an interview with yours truly for the Mail on Sunday's business section over the summer. Below is a link:..
[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].