A cheeky website about deals, dealmakers and anything else I find interesting. Edited by Ben Harrington. If you have a tip or want to discuss a story please feel free to email Betaville at ben@betaville.co.uk. 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 plenty of coverage this morning about the court case involving Dechert and Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, the mining company that used to be listed on the FTSE 100 index...
Media types might interested to hear that Top Right Group, the company formerly known as Emap, is closing in on a decent-sized events and exhibition deal...
Ping - an email arrives from a new reader.
It contains a picture of chap called Mr Seamas Daly, an Irish businessman who founded a printing company called Photo Images Ltd. He is picketing outside a law firm based in Dublin, Ireland.
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Regular readers shouldn't be surprised to learn that the owners of Heathrow have just sold Aberdeen, Southampton and Glasgow airports to a consortium comprising Spain's Ferrovial and Macquarie for £1 billion...
John Paulson's fund is clearly not happy about Abbvie's decision to examine backing out of the Shire deal. Here is what Paulson, who is a big shareholder in both Abbvie and Shire, has just told Bloomberg:..
Here is an interesting snippet on the sale of three airports by Heathrow Airport Holdings.
I have been told that the consortium comprising Spain's Ferrovial, Australia's Macquarie and Singapore fund GIC are close to finalising the £1 billion acquisition of Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports.
I know this story has been comprehensively covered in recent weeks but my sources tell me the deal might be announced at the end of this week. ..
Great to be invited back on Tip TV with hosts Moose and Zac...
I must visit Santini more often...
What has happened to strategic review of Capital Economics, the economics consultancy founded by well-known economist and Daily Telegraph commentator Roger Bootle?
Readers might recall that in June 2013 I broke the story while working at Financial News that Capital Economics had hired advisers from Quayle Munro to work on a strategic review (banker parlance for a sale)...
Hat tip to the Bloomberg M&A reporting team for smoking out Glencore's approach to Rio Tinto about a $160 billion merger...
I see Hewlett-Packard yesterday indicated that it is considering further dealmaking after confirming its demerger plans...
Scribblers round at Goldman Sachs last Friday published a particularly bearish note on Marston's, the FTSE 250 pub company, and reiterated the shares are a "conviction sell". Ouch. ..
Old Russell Chambers got a mention in Dominic Walsh's diary column in The Times last Friday...
Interesting to see that former Kleinwort Benson banker Alan Yarrow was earlier this week elected to be the new Lord Mayor of London...
I was expecting dealmaking the UK to roar back into life after Summer. But it's unusually quiet in the UK M&A market at the moment, with only just a couple of mid-market deals knocking around, such as Greene King's £700m bid for Spirit...
I have spent the last few weeks trying to find out which investment bank has been advising Microchip Technology on its approach for CSR, the London-listed chipmaker. So far, I haven't turned up with anything...
Mike Ashley's multi-million pound punt on Tesco has certainly caused a stir in the London market this morning...
Alistair Osborne's business comment column in The Times today is well worth read. Osborne is an acerbic writer and professional wind up merchant who I used to work with at The Daily Telegraph. His comment on Rocket Internet's IPO is particularly amusing. Here is a link to it:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists/alistairosborne/article4217149.ece..
It's a bit late in the day but just a quick note to congratulate Bryce Elder, the stock market reporter over at the Financial Times, on yesterday's scoop about Greene King's £700m takeover approach for rival Spirit. Here is a link to Bryce's piece: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cb3478c6-4338-11e4-be3f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3EAr0HkhD..
[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].