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.
An airport lounge company founded by an award-winning theatre producer is poised to sell a stake in the business as part of a deal that could value the group at around £50 million.
City sources said No 1 Lounges, which was founded by Phil Cameron, has hired corporate finance advisers from DC Advisory to look at “strategic options” for the group...
There is plenty going on in M & A land at the moment but below is today's clip looking back over the weekend's scoops and, potentially, some other deals coming down the pipeline...
http://tiptv.co.uk/bovis-homes-unofficially-sale-betaville/..
German broadcasting giant Prosiebensat1 has appointed investment bankers to work on a potental sale of online travel agent Etraveli.
Sources familiar with the matter said Prosiebesat1 has asked Goldman Sachs run a potential auction, which may include a disposal of all or part of Etraveli.
According to one source, Goldman Sachs has already prepared a short information memorandum on Etraveli for potential buyers containing some financial information...
I see Premier Oil is this morning claiming in its final results that its $2.8 billion jumbo refinancing will complete in late May. Here is the link:
http://www.investegate.co.uk/premier-oil-plc--pmo-/rns/final-results/201703090701079381Y/..
The long running dust up between the management of vodka distiller Stock Spirits and Luis Amaral, the Portuguese billionaire who owns 10pc of the business, continues unabated.
London-listed Stock Spirits announced preliminary results this morning that didn't seem to worry the market too much (shares up a 1pc or so in morning trade). In case you missed it, here is a link to the company's statement:..
American kitchenwear company Williams-Sonoma is said to be interesting in combining with US rival Restoration Hardware.
City sources claim that since the beginning of this year Williams-Sonoma and Restoration Hardware have had discussions about a deal that could value the latter at $39.50.
However, the chief executive of Restoration Hardware, Gary Friedman, is thought to have rejected Williams-Sonoma's advances, according to these sources...
Why do so many of the world's most powerful hedge fund managers end up in nasty spats in the Bahamas?
For most people the Bahamas is an idyllic Caribbean island that they can only dream of visiting. But for some of the world's wealthiest hedgies that own houses on the Bahamas it would appear to be an island that eventually causes profound angst...
Has Crispin Odey stopped publishing a monthly letter to investors?
The old buffer's monthly report containing (terrible?) performance and his predictions of doom would normally have leaked into the media by now but it would appear nobody can get hold of the hedge fund manager's latest mutterings...
Sorry for the delay in publishing the link to today's Tip TV session but I have had some rather important meetings this morning...
Anyway, here is the link:
http://tiptv.co.uk/standard-life-aberdeen-announce-11-billion-merger-betaville/..
Unsurprisingly, the news about Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life's £11 billion merger dominated today's business sections in the British newspapers.
Hat tip, though, to the Kleinmanator of Sky News for breaking that story on Saturday afternoon - although Bryce Elder's mega scoop about Kraft Heinz's $150 billion takeover bid for Unilever on FT Alphaville from a few weeks ago will still take some beating...
I see one of my favourite ex-Telegraph colleagues, Harry Wilson of The Times, has also noted GVC appears to be preparing for its next major deal by putting debt financing in place.
In case you missed it, here is a link to Harry Wilson's excellent market report column in today's The Times:..
Oh look - Pyrrho Investments has confirmed my tale from earlier on in the day and last week. In case you missed it, I have pasted the announcement below:
Pyrrho Investments Limited ("Pyrrho"), an investment fund, notes the Refinancing update announcements made by Premier Oil ("the Company") from February 2017 to date.
Pyrrho is one of the 3 largest convertible bondholders in Premier Oil with approximately 10% of the total convertible bonds in issuance...
Premier Oil this morning attempted to present a deal with its convertible bond holders as a fait accompli. See the link below:
http://www.investegate.co.uk/premier-oil-plc--pmo-/rns/refinancing-update/201703010700211406Y/..
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...
Sportingbet owner GVC Holdings is said to be gearing up for its next major takeover deal.
According to sources familiar with the matter, investment banks - such as JP Morgan - are said to have put in place a big debt financing package for GVC to use as funds for major M&A tansaction...
Re-visiting the British Sunday newspapers on a Monday is one of my favourite things to do as I often discover nuggets of info I failed to spot over the weekend when I'm scouring the business sections...
Apologies if I look like I have just stepped out of the shower during this session. It litreally tipped it down as I was running from the the tube station to the studio, so I got soaked. Anyway, here is a link to today's session (in which half way through I refer to last year's "election" but meant "referendum"):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0OuQSAuxO4&feature=youtu.be..
Remember the tales of plans to build a £1 billion residential skycraper in Canary Wharf?
Well, yesterday The Sunday Times published the latest twist to the story on the front page of its business section. Here is the link in case you missed yesterday's piece:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/skyscraper-tycoons-held-g09ztsrzx..
Premier Oil put out this rather odd statement - http://www.investegate.co.uk/Index.aspx?searchtype=2&words=Premier+Oil - this afternoon after its shares tanked over the last few days.
Clearly, the market was starting to worry about the completion of the long awaited and somewhat painstaking $2.8 billion debt refinancing deal Premier has been trying to do over the last twelve months...
Here's an interesting little story about a big financial publishing company that gave me one of my first jobs in financial journalism.
I hear the Mergermarket Group - publisher of dealmakers' favourite publications, such as online news services Mergermarket, Dealreporter and Debtwire - is on the verge of selling its life sciences division, Infinata, for up to $20 million...
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