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 IntelligenceFriday, 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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Thursday, 22 November 2018, 9:21 pm
Li Ka-shing has purchased some of Britain's largest businesses but buying the embattled Earls Court development from Capital & Counties might not be as straight forward as the tycoon expected...
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersWednesday, 21 November 2018, 2:20 pm
Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersTuesday, 20 November 2018, 9:04 pm
Betaville IntelligenceTuesday, 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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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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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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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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Betaville IntelligenceTuesday, 13 November 2018, 9:26 pm
This is a story that's been going backwards and forwards for the last couple of years. And no, Betaville isn't referring to the dreaded Brexit. It's the potential sale of Newcastle United Football Club by its billionaire owner Mike Ashley...
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Monday, 12 November 2018, 11:14 am
Everybody in the City of London likes a good lunch. So, the Square Mile's hordes of bankers, lawyers and hedge fund managers might be intrigued to learn that the owner of restaurant guide Square Mile is about to change hands for an estimated £40 million...
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Friday, 9 November 2018, 6:40 pm
Betaville notes Mark Kleinman of Sky News earlier today revealed that BT Group has hired Lazard to sell its fleet management operations (also known as a bunch of vans) for £200 million.
Knowing Kleinman a bit from working together at The Daily Telegraph I'm sure the tale is accurate...
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersThursday, 8 November 2018, 10:16 pm
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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Tuesday, 6 November 2018, 1:58 pm
There was an interesting snippet on this morning's market live session on FT Alphaville.
Bryce Elder, who runs the markets live chat, was suggesting Deutsche Telekom was/is working with advisers to start working on a bid for BT Group. Below is a link to the markets live session:
https://ftalphaville.ft.com/marketslive/2018-11-06/..
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersSaturday, 3 November 2018, 7:30 pm
Betaville IntelligenceSaturday, 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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Betaville IntelligenceFriday, 2 November 2018, 9:35 am
Josh Kosman over at the New York Post landed a great scoop on the Acadia Healthcare / KKR tale I broke a few weeks ago. It's well worth a read if you are following the situation, so I have pasted the link below:
https://nypost.com/2018/10/31/kkr-is-close-to-buying-addiction-treatment-chain/..
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Wednesday, 31 October 2018, 8:19 pm
Spire Healthcare has been on Betaville's radar since 2016. That's because the FTSE 250 hospitals group is often talked about as a potential takeover target for a variety of potential suitors, including Mediclinic...
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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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Monday, 29 October 2018, 9:26 pm
So, this piece - https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/investing/article-6247683/Soross-investment-firm-pulls-rug-Queens-red-carpet-firm-founded-123-years-ago.html - I wrote in the Mail on Sunday a couple of weeks ago would appear to be rather prescient given today's news from Victoria about the hit to margins...
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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].