Betaville

Barratt Developments snaps up Redrow for £2.5 billion in stock

Consolidation in the British housebuilding sector has been talked about for a while but nobody believed it would actually happen.

But now it actually has with Barratt Developments announcing a £2.5 billion all-share takeover of smaller rival Redrow.

Barratt Developments is offering 1.44 new Barratt shares for every Redrow share which currently values the latter at just over £2.5 billion or around about a 27pc premium to Redrow's share price at yesterday's close...

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Jollyes owner said to be working with bankers on potential multi-million pound sale - sources - Part 3

It seems little old Betaville owes rival business hack Josh O'Neill an apology.

I thought I was the first to discover late last year that British pet food retailer Jollyes had appointed advisers from Houlihan Lokey to find a buyer for the business.

However, it turns out O'Neill - who works for Debtwire and Mergermarket, little old Betaville's former employers back in the mid Noughties - revealed the scoopette first...

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Blackstone said to be considering takeover bid for L'Occitane, reveals Bloomberg

Hacks at Bloomberg have dug out another decent scoop about Hong Kong-listed skin care group L'Occitane.

According to Bloomberg, the private equity giant has been considering preliminary due diligence as it evaluates a potential offer while also considering the possibility of teaming up with L'Occitane’s billionaire chairman Reinold Geiger on a buyout...

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Novo Nordisk backer buys Catalent for $16.5 billion

It would appear pharmaceuticals and biotechnology is still a fertile industry for dealmaking.

Novo Holdings, the largest shareholder in Danish drugs giant Novo Nordisk, just announced the $16.5 billion takeover of US-listed Catalent, provider of delivery technologies, development, drug manufacturing, biologics, gene therapies and consumer health products...

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Fiat and Peugeot owner said to be in merger talks with Renault, claims Il Messaggero

There is a frisson of excitement around Renault's shares this morning after an Italian newspaper suggested it may be in talks about a deal with Stellantis, whose car brands include Fiat, Peugeot and Citroen.

Italian rag Il Messaggero claims France is considering a merger between the two to strengthen its grip on the sector and counter Chinese and German competition. Below is a link to the piece if you read Italian:..

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Where is maverick Mike on Superdry?

Hat tip to Isabella Fish of The Times for effectively smoking out Julian Dunkerton's plans to take Superdry private.

Superdry was yesterday forced to confirm Dunkerton's move after Isabella's story about stakebuilding from First Seagull AS, a Norwegian hedge fund. Below is a link to Superdry's confirmation:..

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Freshfields on dealmaking via Harvard, Hammond and Twitter...

Twitter can be a pretty horrendous place these days.

But you can still find the odd nugget of something interesting or useful among the whingeing, rowing and sometimes, quite frankly, harrowing images.

It takes, though, a certain type of person to know how to find and present that interesting or useful piece of information on Twitter and I'm not just talking about little old Betaville...

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Jollyes owner said to be working with bankers on potential multi-million pound sale - sources - Part 2

Rivals at Debtwire and Mergermarket have picked up on little old Betaville's scoopette about the potential £100 million sale of British pet food retailer Jollyes.

According Debtwire's Josh O'Neil, the private equity owners of supermarket giant Asda, TDR Capital, have been in exclusive talks with Jollyes owner Kester Capital about a takeover of the business...

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Saturday review: Dyne Therapeutics, Burberry and Reckitt Benckiser...

I see arch rivals at Bloomberg decided to publish the Dyne Therapeutics Inc takeover story little old Betaville has been chasing for the last few weeks.

According to Bloomie, Dyne Therapeutics has been "speaking with advisers as it consider options including a possible sale or partnership". Below is a link to the full story:..

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Bears maul Svenska Cellulosa SCA...

Bears are coming out of the woods despite the ongoing equity market rally.

And it's another Sweden-listed company that is on the receiving end of a mauling from Viceroy Reseach, the activist short seller led by Fraser Perring.

As usual, the note from Viceroy about Svenska Cellulosa AB SCA, a timber, pulp and paper manufacturer, is a little bit too fruity to be aired on these pixels so I have pasted the link below...

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