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.

Betaville Intelligence

RARE ALERT: Welltower Inc said to be sniffing around £2.5 billion Barchester Healthcare

Friday, 23 November 2018, 10:29 pm

The Irish punters that invested in care home giant Barchester Healthcare could be about make another from the fortune from the care home company.

Betaville understands that several large American companies, including listed real estate investment trust Welltower Inc, have shown an interest in the business, whose owners have appointed JP Morgan to find a buyer...

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Betaville Intelligence

RARE ALERT: BTG said to ... - Part 2

Tuesday, 20 November 2018, 9:19 am

Oh look - I see London-listed medical devices company BTG has finally come out and unveiled a £3.3 billion takeover bid from US predator Boston Scientific Group.

Subscribers to Betaville Intelligence won't be too surprised about today's announcement as this news service was the first to flag BTG was in play in the middle July. Below is a link to the piece:..

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Uber rainmakers see pay cut...

Monday, 19 November 2018, 9:03 pm

Sir Simon Robey and Simon Warshaw - the uber bankers and founders of London-based M&A advisory firm Robey Warshaw - have taken a pay cut, according to Financial News.

In the 12 months to March 18, revenues the firm fell 60pc but the highest paid employee (presumably either Sir Simon or Mr Warshaw) still received £12.1 million, so cry me a river. Below is a link to the Financial News piece:..

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H&M chairman back in the market...

Friday, 16 November 2018, 7:20 pm

So, after a hiatus of several months Stefan Persson, the chairman of Hennes & Maurtiz, was today adding to this year's mammoth share purchase.

The Swedish billionaire squire - who owns vaste swathes of Britain's West Country - has this year spent almost $1 billion on buying shares in the company his father founded 71 years ago but today he added another 5.46 million shares to his shareholding, according to Bloomberg...

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What do WM Morrison and Marks & Spencer both have in common (apart from being large food retailers)?

Thursday, 15 November 2018, 9:45 am

The answer is: a corporate broker (an English concept whereby a company retains an investment bank to be its "interface" with the stock market).

Yes, Betaville learned last night whilst out a top quality party packed with City grandees (such as Lord Myners, former chairman of Marks & Spencer), investment bankers and chief executives that Shore Capital had displaced Citigroup as corporate broker to Marks & Spencer...

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The bank scoop, the intrepid hack and the old team...

Wednesday, 7 November 2018, 8:47 am

Harry Wilson, City Editor of The Times, dug out a cracking scoop yesterday (or most likely the day before but it only appeared in print in yesterday's edition).

The intrepid hack discovered that Aaron Banks - the insurance "tycoon" and under fire funder of the Leave.EU campaign - had asked Oakwell Capital to find a buyer for his 29.1pc stake in Manx Financial Group, the Isle of Man's largest lender. Below is a link to Harry's piece:..

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Betaville Intelligence

RARE ALERT: WPP said to ... part 6

Saturday, 3 November 2018, 8:22 am

There was a rather interesting piece on Bloomberg yesterday about how Sir Martin Sorrell, the former WPP boss, held talks with Warren Buffett six years ago about selling the advertising giant to the Sage of Omaha.

Sir Martin appears to have disclosed the historical talks at an event by Campaign magazine and Bloomberg picked up on it...

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Tags: WPP

That £560 million Restaurant Group takeover of Wagamama...

Tuesday, 30 October 2018, 10:35 pm

Hat tip to Dom Walsh of The Times business section for landing the scoop about Restaurant Group buying Wagamama for £560 million.

But Betaville was a tad surprised to learn of Restaurant Group's decision to buy Wagamama. That's because the last time I dined with an old City contact at the Japanese food chain the grub was decidely average and within a couple of minutes of finishing my meal Betaville endured a rather upset stomach...

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[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].