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.
It's been a while since the London market saw a FTSE 100 food retailer takeover bid.
So little old Betaville's eyes almost popped out while reading Mark "The Kleinmanator" Kleinman's column in City AM...
Little old Betaville has noticed that three of the world's largest pharmaceutical giants have all recently done two major takeover deals within a few weeks, and in some cases days, of each other...
The US biotechnology dealmaking wave rumbles on.
This time round pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb is paying $14 billion for Karuna Therapeutics, which is developing a drug for shizophrenia.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Bristol Myers Squibb is offering $330 a share in cash for Karuna. Below is a link to the WSJ scoop:..
The Times appears to be publishing its New Year tips early.
Emma Powell, editor of The Tempus stocktipping column, today concludes in her lengthy piece about the FTSE 100-listed the owner of Ladbrokes and Gala Coral that "a potential bid for Entain by MGM Resorts seems more probable than it has done for some time"...
Who would have thought the London market would see one of the biggest deals of 2023 announced in the penultimate week of the year.
But this afternoon it happened, with London-listed North Sea oil and gas explorer Harbour Energy announcing a deal to buy Wintershal Dea's assets for $11.2 billion from Germany's BASF and LetterOne, which is backed by sanction-hit Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven...
It only took rivals at Deareporter seven weeks to figure out that one of the bidders for US-listed biotechnology company is Swizterland-based giant Novartis.
This afternoon Dealreporter published a story suggesting that Novartis and AstraZeneca are circling Cytokinetics...
Dominic "Dom" Walsh, veteran business hack on The Times, began his market report with an intriguing line about how the Saudi Telecom Company is circling BT Group, the FTSE 100-listed telecoms giant.
According to Dom's report, the Saudi Telecom Company may be talking to Patrick Drahi about buying some or all of his shareholding in BT Group following a period in which the Switzerland-based telecoms billionaire has been accumulating a 25pc stake...
A decent scoop from American digital publishing start up Axios.
According to Axios, Warner Brothers Discovery is in talks to merge with Paramount to create a $40 billion media entertainment behemoth...
The end of year dealmaking rush continues.
This time Aon, one of the world's largest insurance brokers, has just announced it has bought a property and casualty broker NFP from private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners and HPS Investment Partners for $13.4 billion. Below is a link to today's deal details:..
So, it turns out it wasn't Bloomberg that broke the story about LXI REIT's £4 billion merger talks with LondonMetric.
It was, in fact, React News that broke the story 15 minutes before Bloomie pumped out their own version.
Hat tip, then, to React News for landing the scoop and apologies for attributing it to our arch rivals at Bloomberg...
There has been talk of consolidation among London-listed property companies and real estate investment trusts for a while and it would appear Bloomberg have just broken a decent scoop about a potential landmark transaction.
According to Bloomie, FTSE 250-listed REIT LondonMetric is in talks with to merge with LXI REIT. Below is a link to the Bloomberg scoop:..
Japan's Nippon Steel Corporation has finally confirmed its interest in buying United States Steel Corporation with a $14.9 billion recommended takeover offer. Below is a link to this morning's announcement:..
Apologies for the tardy follow up about OCI; you may have noticed little old Betaville was a bit busy on a few other things late last week.
Anyway, it would appear OCI, the Dutch Euronext-listed chemicals company, has appeared to confirm the disposal aspect of last week's UNCOOKED Alerts...
Mark "The Kleinmanator" Kleinman, City Editor of Sky News, is up early with a decent scoop about Mike Ashley's Frasers Group.
According to Kleiny - a former colleague during our time working on The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph - Frasers Group is in talks with private equity firm Apax about buying Matchesfashion, the online upmarket fashion retailer...
Matthew Moulding has just upped his stake in Kelso, the activist firm that is pushing for the break up of some of THG.
This morning Kelso - which is led by veteran City stockbroker John Goold - declared that Moulding, the founder and boss of THG, now has just over 6pc of THG. Below is a link to the announcement:..
I see arch rivals at Bloomberg have finally decided to follow up little old Betaville's recent UNCOOKED Alerts about OCI N.V., the Euronext-listed Dutch chemicals company.
Bloomie today reported that the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is in talks with OCI about buying the whole business for $5 billion. Below is the link to the Bloomie tale:..
CVC Capital Partners, Carlyle and an Abu Dhabi-backed group are all said to be involved in the strategic review involving OCI N.V., the Euronext-listed Dutch chemicals company.
CVC Capital Partners, Europe's largest private equity firm, and US-based Carlyle are rumoured to have submitted non-binding offers last week for some or all of OCI, said people following the situation...
[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].