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.
There is some big stakebuilding news breaking this morning.
Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates-based telecoms operator, has just revealed it has bought a near 10pc stake in FTSE 100-listed giant Vodafone for $4.4 billion.
The swoop makes Etisalat Vodafone's largest shareholder but the company says it won't make a bid for the company (usual caveats apply one assumes)...
How many flaks do you need to work on a mutli-billion dollar listing?
Well, typically only one but for some reason CVC Capital Partners, Britain's biggest buy-out house, has lined up corporate spinners Tulchan alongside Teneo to work on its bumper float, according to well-placed snouts.
Quite why CVC feels the need to pay Tulchan, which is run by former Conservative party chairman Andrew Feldman, hundreds of thouands of pounds to work on the listing is a bit of a mystery...
The Bloomberg follow ups appear to be arriving on a daily, if not hourly, basis at the moment.
Now, Betaville's arch rivals have published a fresh follow up to little old Betaville's intelligence alert about Ontex (https://www.betaville.co.uk/betaville-intelligence/uncooked-alert-ontex-said-to-part-3/) earlier this year...
The venerable Financial Times this morning revealed that US pharma giant Pfizer is in the advanced stages of buying Biohaven, a US-listed firm that has been working on treatments for migraines. Below is the link:
https://www.ft.com/content/ea9bb9bc-b5ec-4278-ab42-1f5f14a1a76f..
Hat tip to hacks at Wall Street Journal for landing the scoop about Philip Morris International's $15 billion takeover bid for Swedish Match AB, the Swedish maker of smokeless tobacco products such as Snus. Below is a link to their "exclusive":..
It's all out in the open now: Capital & Counties Properties and Shaftesbury have both confirmed they are in £3.5 billion merger talks. Below is the link:
It's been a short while since the London market has seen a sizeable firm bid for a London-listed company from a private equity house.
So, it was good to wake up to the board of Ideagen, the software compliance firm, reccomending a 350p a share cash offer from HG - and rival private equity outfit Astorg is being given the chance to carry out due dligence to come up with a rival bid...
I see the old Mark "the Kleinmanator" Kleinman of Sky News has popped up with his own version of the Capital & Counties Properties tale.
According to Kleiny, Capital & Counties Properties is in talks with larger rival West End landlord Shaftesbury about a £3.5 billion all-share merger!
Mark's full story is yet to be published but I will obviously add the link when he does put it up.
UPDATE: ..
Capital & Counties Properties has come under the spotlight amid speculation the company may soon be involved in significant corporate transaction, such as a merger or takeover of the London-listed company.
The precise details of transaction involving Capital & Counties Properties are unclear but some people following the situation suggested the company may have attracted a suitor interested in buying the business...
And there you have it: US-listed MaxLinear Inc has agreed a deal to buy rival chip maker Silicon Motion Technology Corporation for $4 billion in cash and stock.
MaxLinear will pay $93.54 in cash and about 0.4 of its share for each Silicon Motion's American depositary shares (ADS).
In case you don't recall, little old Betaville was the first to highlight Silicon Motion Technology Corporation was in play for a takeover in late April. Below is the link:..
So, Cinven has dropped its bid for Ideagen, the London-listed compliance software business.
However, the company in its own statement has revealed that both Astorg and HG, two rival private equity houses have made seperate approaches since Betaville outed Cinven's interest in Ideagen. Below is the link:..
I see arch rivals at Bloomberg have published another follow up to little old Betaville's UNCOOKED ALERT about Silicon Motion Technology Corporation.
Now hacks at Bloomie are suggesting MaxLinear Inc, a US-listed hardware business, is in talks to buy Silicon Motion Technology Corporation.
Below are the links to the Bloomie "scoop" in case you missed it and Betaville's UNCOOKED ALERT:..
Perhaps Betaville was being too snarky about Dealreporter's Ubisoft Entertainment tale.
A loyal reader points out that the Dealreporter piece reveals the Guillemot family, who founded Ubisoft in 1986, is assessing doing a deal with a private equity firm.
That fact is extremely important because the Guillemot's were viewed a possible impediment to a takeover following an approach several years ago at a much higher price...
You might be wondering why Ubisoft Entertainment's shares have spiked almost 10pc this afternoon.
Well, it's because Dealreporter have just pumped out their own version of the takeover tale that was first aired by Bloomberg a few days ago.
Dealreporter's story is somewhat after the horse has bolted but the the topline from Betaville's erstwhile employer is:..
Atos shares have had a torrid time over the last year despite perpetual rumours predators are circling.
Well, mutiple profit warnings certainly haven't helped matters!..
EG Group, the owner of Asda supermarkets, and Alimentation Couche-Tard are reportedly in deal talks as part of a transaction that could value the former at $16 billion.
Well, that's according to hacks at the Wall Street Journal, which rather annoyingly is on a bit of decent run of digging out scoops...
[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].