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.
Political blog Guido Fawkes is this afternoon carrying a tale about how Anna Soubry, the pro European Tory MP for Broxstowe, could be willing to join a new pro-European centrist political party with Lib Dem and Labour remainers. Here is the link:
https://order-order.com/2017/03/30/soubry-backs-new-centrist-party/..
I see uber bankers at Robey Warshaw are taking a bit of stick in the financial media this morning following the collapse of London Stock Exchange's £24 billion merger with German rival Deutsche Borse...
Centaur Media, publisher of Marketing Week, has finally got round to confirming little old Betaville's Intelligence piece about how the publishing and events group is exploring a sale of its Homebuilding and Renovation division.
Here is the link to this morning's announcement from Centaur Media:..
Followers of little old Betaville's antics might recall that a few weeks ago on Tip TV I noted there were a few things afoot with AIM-listed tiddler Independent Oil & Gas. Here is the link to that clip in case you don't recall:
I see freesheet City Am has followed up on little old Betaville's scoopette about Incisive Media, publisher of Investment Week, and its £120 million French deal. Click on the link below if your interested in the story:
http://www.cityam.com/261799/incisive-sale-uk-publishing-company-sells-magazine-titles..
Zak doesn't do afternoons so I was interviewed by the charming Matt Brown. Here is a link to today's session:
http://tiptv.co.uk/exova-confirms-bid-interests-old-mutual-sells-stake-hna-betaville/..
A mystery French company has bought Incisive Media's Insight group, publisher of trade well-known City titles such as Risk and the Insurance Post.
Private equity sources said the French company is thought to have agreed a deal with Incisive Media's owners that will see it pay around £120 million for Insight Group...
Little old Betaville took a fair amount of stick last week after Fingerprint Cards, the Swedish biometric sensors company, unvelied a stinker of a profit warning. Here is an FT piece on last week's warning.
https://www.ft.com/content/db27f510-0e2d-11e7-a88c-50ba212dce4d..
This Heineken / Punch takeover deal appears to be almost done and dusted but I did discover over lunch the other day (that's old school "journalism" for you, I guess) some more detail about the consortium Alan McIntosh was trying to put together to buy the business...
It struck me whilst combing through the recent coverage of the Bob Diamond / Panmure Gordon deal over the last few days that none of the excellent commentators had picked up on what a shoddy investment the stockbroker has been for Qinvest, the Qatari "investment bank" now run by some ex Goldman Sachs types...
Royal Bank of Scotland has maintained a pretty steady line about the behaviour of its notorious (and disbanded) ‘restructuring division’ [also known as the Global Restructuring Group]. Nothing to look at here, move along now, has long been the message...
Tongues are wagging in the Square Mile (the City of London) after Imperial Brands decided to suddenly host an "investor webinar" tomorrow.
According to my moles, Alison Cooper - chief executive of Imperial Brands, formerly known as Imperial Tobacco - is planning to talk about the company's strategy with investors...
Here is a link to today's shenanigans with my old chum Zak.
http://tiptv.co.uk/canadas-snc-lavalin-eyes-woodamec-assets-betaville/..
I rekindled my "top of the market?" series back in late December 2016 as the FTSE 100 index began to flirt with a recod high of 7100. Here is the link to that piece in case you don't recall:
https://www.www.betaville.co.uk/news/top-of-the-market-the-series-returns/
But since then the blue-chip index has powered on, closing yesterday at just over 7400...
Refinancing stories aren't exactly front page news but I have stumbled across one that is vaguely interesting.
I understand that London-based private equity firm Phoenix Equity Partners has got bankers over at Evercore working on a major refinancing of Key Retirement...
Congratulations to Oliver Shah, City Editor over at The Sunday Times.
Olly, a sometime colleague, last night got his just deserves for his series of brilliant scoops about Sir Philip Greed, the strange sale of BHS to Dominic Chappell for a £1 and the evenutal collapse of the business.
Most importantly, Olly's scoops, stories and investigative features played a large part in Sir Philip coughing up £363 million for the BHS pension scheme...
It's good to see the chaps at Omers and Wren House finally pull off a water deal yesterday.
In case you don't recall, I broke the story back in 2013 about how Canada's Borealis, a division of Omers, and the Kuwaiti Investment Authority (which is now operating the Wren House guise) teamed up to mount a joint £5 billion plus bid for FTSE 100-listed Severn Trent. Here is the link to that piece:..
French gas utility Engie has been working with bankers at Rothschild on a potential acquisiton of Suez.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that Engie is talking to certain banks about a potential $19.8 billion purchase of German renewable energy company Innogy. French reports have subsequently played down the Bloomberg report, with BFM claiming Engie has no interest in being a minority shareholder. German utility company RWE owns a 76.8pc stake in Engie...
To the AIM bulletin boards where investors appear to have got rather excited about China Africa Resources's proposal to change its name to Pembridge Resources.
The move to change the company's name comes after David Linsley - one of the founders of Cross Asset Management (older readers might recall the investment firm was one of first London-based event driven hedge funds set up in the City) - was appointed as chief executive in February...
[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].