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.
Saturday, 3 August 2019, 10:56 am
It sounds like the banks and hedgies that ended up owning the failed Interserve are already becoming fed up with being proprietors of the government contracting giant.
According to reliable City sources, Royal Bank of Scotland et al have asked advisers at Lazard to start drawing up plans for a sale of some or all of the group, which could kick off in earnest as early as this September...
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Friday, 2 August 2019, 6:15 pm
As a competitive deals hack it is rather galling to be scooped but once again I take my hat off the FT team that broke the $27 billion LSE/Refinitiv mega merger deal last Friday evening. It's possible that will be the M&A story of the year...
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersWednesday, 31 July 2019, 8:33 pm
Betaville IntelligenceWednesday, 31 July 2019, 5:32 pm
There are some Twitter users, namely Trinvest3, who are completely misrepresenting Betaville's content on the social media platform.
Once again, Trinvest3 (presumably from Spain), is talking BOLLOCKS claiming I wrote certain facts in an article involving Amgen that I didn't actually write.
I just thought I would clear that up!..
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Tuesday, 30 July 2019, 8:35 pm
Sometimes confirmations come within hours of a report; sometimes they take months. Or, in the case of BBA Aviation: a year!
Today the FTSE 250-listed business anounced it is selling its Ontic division to CVC Capital Partners for almost $1.4 billion...
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersTuesday, 30 July 2019, 7:37 pm
Betaville IntelligenceMonday, 29 July 2019, 8:40 pm
I see Mercia Asset Management has confirmed last week's RARE Alert about Woodford Patient Capital Trust selling out of the firm. Below is the link in case you missed it:
https://www.investegate.co.uk/mercia-asset-mgt-plc--merc-/rns/notification-of-major-holdings/201907291424390770H/..
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersMonday, 29 July 2019, 4:22 pm
Saturday, 27 July 2019, 11:49 pm
If you have a spare moment over the weekend and are interested in the Cobham / Advent bid situation then do click on the link below for a follow up piece in the Mail on Sunday's business section by yours truly and Jamie "Nimmers" Nimmo...
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Saturday, 27 July 2019, 1:55 pm
Today is quickly turning into a "Merger Saturday"!
The Kleinmanator of Sky News has just popped up with a corking jackanory about Just Eat merging with Takeaway.com. Below is the link:
https://news.sky.com/story/just-eat-delivers-9bn-merger-with-takeaway-com-11771635..
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Saturday, 27 July 2019, 9:44 am
So, the Financial Times deals team nailed it.
Below is a link to the confirmation, which shows this mega merger is being structured with the LSE buying Refinitiv for $27 billion.
https://www.lseg.com/resources/media-centre/press-releases/statement-regarding-press-speculation..
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Friday, 26 July 2019, 7:20 pm
Wow!
The M&A chaps at the venerable Financial Times are on fire at the moment with another humdinger of a scoop about the LSE merging with Refinitiv as part of a $40 billion combination.
Below is the link:
https://www.ft.com/content/ddf40314-afc6-11e9-8030-530adfa879c2..
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Betaville IntelligenceFriday, 26 July 2019, 2:55 pm
I do wish Betaville's friends at Bloomberg would accurately aggregate content from my website.
To be clear, people claiming to be familiar with matter said Woodford has sold Woodford Patient Capital Trust's 5pc stake in Mercia Asset Management for around 30p but NOT the whole of the 24pc shareholding as suggested by the aggregated version of my story on Bloomberg...
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Betaville IntelligenceFriday, 26 July 2019, 10:57 am
Hardly a week goes by now without Neil "Woody" Woodford dumping a load of illiquid stock into the London market.
Indeed, the latest exit is from Mercia Asset Management, a "specialist asset manager focused on high-growth SMEs"...
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Thursday, 25 July 2019, 5:08 pm
Hat tip the FT deals team hacks who stayed laid at work last night to dig out the Advent Cobham bid scoop ahead of this morning's announcement. Below is a link to the deal announcement:
https://www.investegate.co.uk/cobham-plc--cob-/rns/recommended-cash-acquisition-of-cobham/201907250700266475G/..
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Thursday, 25 July 2019, 6:41 am
Betaville applauds the Evening Standard's excellent City Spy column yesterday sticking up for a young Finanical Times hack that just a couple of days ago was viciously attacked on Twitter by UBS for "agenda journalism"...
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersTuesday, 23 July 2019, 10:30 am
Monday, 22 July 2019, 9:55 am
Betaville's chums on the Mail on Sunday's business section had a decent haul yesterday.
Indeed, Neil "Neily" Craven's scoop about Ray Kelvin looking at a take private of Ted Baker appears to be the most talked about story in the London market this morning...
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Betaville IntelligenceFriday, 19 July 2019, 4:31 pm
Betaville takes a lot of stick from punters about my jackanories, so below is a link that effectively confirms this week's RARE Alert about Woodford Investment Management placing its near 17pc stake in wily old Richard Bernstein's Crystal Amber Fund...
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Friday, 19 July 2019, 9:48 am
Oh look: Inflexion Private Equity has just bought Estera, the firm linked to the 'Paradise Papers' leak, from Bridgepoint. See the press release below:
https://www.ocorian.com/article/ocorian-merge-estera ..
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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].