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 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...
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:..
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/..
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...
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/..
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...
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...
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...
Oh look - Crawhaw Group has confirmed yesterday's Betaville Intelligence RARE alert. Below is a link to the piece:
Debenhams isn't the only listed retailer plotting a major store closure programme.
Crawshaw Group, the listed value butcher, is working on a plan to raise between £2.5 million and £3.5 million as part of a major financial restructuring that could see the company close a number of stores, said sources claiming to be familiar with the matter...
Wow - a year really can make a difference in hedge fund investing.
Crispin Odey's flagship was up 38pc as of the end of September, according to the latest HSBC ranking of top European hedge funds.
That means the old buffer is more than likely to finish the year as the top performing European hedgie in Europe...
Strange goings-on at RockRose Energy this morning.
The London-listed oil and gas explorer launched a tender to buy 20pc of its stock at 560p a share. Below is a link:
There are plenty of interesting stories in today's Sunday newspaper business sections but it was Patrick Hosking's comment piece in Saturday's business section of The Times that caught Betaville's eye...
Global has been gobbling up so-called "out of home" advertising at the pace of knots.
The radio company - run by Ashley Tabor, son of betting magnate Michael Tabor - has recently spent the best part of £700 million on Primesight, Outdoor Plus and Exterion, which has the contracts with Transport for London to advertise on the London underground.
That deal pits Global - which owns Capital, LBC and Heart FM - against outdoor advertising market leader JC Decaux...
Betaville notes Reuters just published an "exclusive" about Acadia Healthcare weighing a sale after receiving expressions of interest from private equity firms, such as KKR and TPG Capital. Below is a link:..
So, Alison Brittain can rest easy. Why?
Well, apparently Nelson Peltz's firm was seriously considering targeting Whitbread for the corporate raider's new London-listed fund (https://www.trianinvestors1.com) but City souces said Trian recently decided against such a move.
And it's not just because Brittain has struck a deal to sell Costa Coffee to Coca Cola for £3.9 billion...
I have to apologise to hacks at Bloomberg - it would appear Betaville didn't realise the news agency published its Gatwick scoop on Friday night.
Indeed, according to the timestamp on the Bloomie piece the news agency's article came out at 18:56 on October 12 but the Irish Independent's piece quoting Bloomberg and its reporters came out on October 14th, so not quite sure what's happened there.....
The mystery buyer circling Acadia Healthcare, the US listed rehab treatment group, is said to be American private equity giant KKR.
Sources claiming to be familiar with the matter said KKR may have already approached Acadia Healthcare about a takeover deal.
These sources claiming to be familiar with the matter said KKR is being advised by Goldman Sachs and could be willing to pay up to $48 a share...
[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].