Syed Shah got a big fright the other day - a $9 million fright to be exact.
When US oil prices crashed last month Shah bought a bunch of futures contracts at what he thought was one cent a barrel, hoping to pick the bottom of the rout.
However, little did he know that at the time he was buying through his $77,000 account at one cents the real price of oil was actually minus $3.70 a barrel...
The mystery surrounding LVMH's intentions to buy Tiffany for $16 billion continues.
This morning LVMH has issued a statement that it is "currently committed" to NOT buy shares in Tiffany. Below is a link:
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/03/23/2004503/0/en/LVMH-Press-Release.html..
So, Tiffany's shares leapt almost 14pc last night to $126 after Bloomberg reported LVMH is looking at ways to take advantage of the discount to its £$135 offer price by buying stock in the market. Below is the link to the Bloomie scoop:..
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...
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...
I see rivals at Bloomberg yesterday afternoon attempted to disseminate Betaville's UNCOOKED Alert to its subscribers.
According to the Bloomberg report about yesterday's UNCOOKED Alert, Betaville Intelligence reported (I know this starting to sound really weird) that "an unidentified US company is weighing an offer for the company [Vodafone]"...
So, it turns out Betaville's UNCOOKED ALERT from mid December on Quilter was barking up the right tree after all.
According to Bloomberg, Waburg Pincus has been in talks about buying Quilter for around $4 billion although the news organisation seemed to suggest discussions are no longer "live".
Below is the link to my original piece from mid December:..
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:..
Betaville was chuckling to himself last night when he saw Bloomberg hacks claiming an "exclusive" story on Twitter last night revealing Phoenix Group Holdings merger with ReAssure.
Well, presumably these journalists missed yesterday's UNCOOKED Alert published at midday yesterday with a rather similar tale. Below is the link:..
Sifting through content on Bloomberg can be a depressing for Betaville. That's because I often encounter a scoop I missed, yet another piece about London house prices or a review of an expensive restaurant I can't afford...
Oh look - I see Bloomberg has just published a "scoop" about Cox & Kings appointing bankers from Lazard to find a buyer for Meininger Hotels, the Berlin-based budget hotel chain. Below is a link:
Last week there was a report on Bloomberg that some of the lenders to Thomas Cook had begun offloading the company’s debt amid fears about the company’s financial position.
According to Bloomberg, lenders holding around £300 million of Thomas Cook's debt were contacting potential buyers and brokers about selling some of the debt at half its current market value...
Betaville has been inundated with phone calls since the venerable Financial Times ran its interview with the Sage of Omaha, in which the octogenarian billionaire investor suggested he is looking at doing a big UK deal. Below is a link to the interview:
https://www.ft.com/content/32676c5c-667e-11e9-9adc-98bf1d35a056
"What's he going to buy,?" asked one veteran investor...
The Swedish billionaire squire is at it again. Stefan Persson was in the last few days hoovering up more stock in Hennes & Maurtiz, the company founded by his father, Erling Persson, back in 1947.
According to Bloomberg, Persson just spent around $153 million on 10.4 million shares in Hennes & Mauritz in the last few days...
Oh look - it would appear Betaville's rivals over at Bloomberg are echoing last Sunday's piece by yours truly in the Mail on Sunday's business section.
Below is the link to yesterday's piece on Bloomberg:..
I have to apologise to hacks at Bloomberg - it would appear Betaville didn't realise the news agency published its Gatwick scoop on Friday night.
Indeed, according to the timestamp on the Bloomie piece the news agency's article came out at 18:56 on October 12 but the Irish Independent's piece quoting Bloomberg and its reporters came out on October 14th, so not quite sure what's happened there.....
At first sight it would appear hacks over at Bloomberg followed my scoopette in this weekend's Mail on Sunday about the looming £10 billion Gatwick Airport sale. Below is a link to the Irish Independent's rip off yesterday's Bloomberg follow up, which is dated October 14th (yesterday):..
Apparently, charming hedgie Crispin Odey, a vocal Brexiteer, is preparing to go into politics!
Well, that's according to a report in trade rag Financial News, which the publication splashed on earlier this week. Hat tip to intrepid FN hack Tom Teodorczuk for landing what would appear quite a scoop containing ON THE RECORD quotes. Below is a link:..
Oh look - I see Bloomborg last night published a piece that about Belgian insurer Ageas that is eerily similar to the one Betaville published a couple of weeks ago. I have pasted the links below:
Well that didn't take long.
An hour after Betaville published along came Bloomborg with a tale about how China Grand Enterprises, Inc. and its affiliate company Huadong Medicine Co made a takeover approach for London-listed Sinlcair Pharma, the face lift specialist.
Below is a link to the RNS confirmation:..
Interesting story from rivals over Bloomberg about Global Infrastructure Partners looking to sell its stake in Gatwick Airport for I suspect quite a lot of money (think billions and billions). Below is a link:
I see Bloomberg has attempted to aggregate Betaville's paywall protected Betaville Intelligence article from earlier in the week on Charter Communications by attempting to second guess what the actual piece says without actually knowing what it says.
As Betaville has pointed out before, this is a dangerous game to play.....
This time last week Betaville was all aflutter after the Daily Mail splashed its business section and wrote a comment piece on the possiblity of Comcast making a £19 billion counter offer for FTSE 100-listed broadcaster Sky...
I see Bloomberg has written a piece about the upcoming sale of Texas-based mortgage provider Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. Betaville would paste the link to the Bloomberg story below but for some reason it hasn't made it available to readers that don't have a terminal...
There is a good tale from team Bloomborg knocking around the wires this morning about one of the City's favourite sandwich shops, Pret a Manger, hiring banks for an IPO. Here is the link in case you missed it:
When I was a young reporter on The Daily Telegraph in the mid noughties working a late shift I was somewhat bamboozled by the first editions of the Daily Mail and The Daily Express.
Why?
Well, that's because the front page (of the main book) of one those newspapers led with a story about how prices are set to soar while the other claimed on the front page (of the main book, too) that houses prices were set to crash...
Two days on and the upper echelons of the financial media world are still picking over the carcass of the failed Kraft Heinz / 3G / Warren Buffett / Unilever deal.
Probably the best newspaper piece out there is the "tick tock" by Arash Massoudi and James Fontanella-Kahn in today's Financial Times. Here is the link in case you haven't read it:..
This is piece (see below) from Bloomberg is a great read and demonstrates how hedge funds found an interesting "edge" on the $30 billion Johnson & Johnson / Actelion deal.
A lot has been written about "fake news" over the last month so but how about ruminating on the growing amount of duff - or perhaps we should call them "fake" - denials.
Today, for example, French aerospace company Safran announced it is buying rival Zodiac Aerospace for EURO 8.5 billion...
Actelion is currently up just over 15pc and various hacks are claiming the "scoop" despite the fact the story hasn't even made into hard newsprint yet in one of the "newspapers of record" (Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Telegraph etc) or been confirmed by the Swiss company itself...
I see Bloomberg was today badgering Dr Severin Schwan, the Roche chief executive, into providing a denial to my BioMarin story from a few weeks ago.
According to the Bloomberg story I read today, Dr Schwan said Roche was looking at small to medium-sized acquistions although he believes biotech valuations are "too high" even after the recent market correction...