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.
Global Switch announced on Friday after the market closed (it was a half day ahead of the New Year weekend) that Elegant Jubilee had bought another 2pc stake in Global Switch from the billionaire Reuben Brothers...
Poor old Crispin. Now, hacks and hackettes at The Times are sticking the boot in with a piece about profits and performance fees have "plunged" at Odey Asset Management following a torrid few years of terrible performance. I have pasted the link to Deidre Hipwell piece in today's business section below:..
This time last week Betaville was all aflutter after the Daily Mail splashed its business section and wrote a comment piece on the possiblity of Comcast making a £19 billion counter offer for FTSE 100-listed broadcaster Sky...
WPP held a board meeting last week amid speculation the marketing services giant may be looking at its "strategic options".
According to high-level industry sources, WPP's board members met last week in New York. However, it's not clear why the FTSE 100-listed company's senior exectuives held the board meeting in the US or what the meeting was about, said these industry sources...
Crispin Odey is falling in with the hedgies at Polygon by calling for a higher offer from 21st Century Fox or its new owner - the Walt Disney Company. Ben Martin, a former colleague from my time at The Daily Telegraph and now a reporter at Reuters, managed to get the old buffer to talk about it on the record today. I have pasted Ben's piece below in case you missed it...
So farewell Dan Dunkley, The Sunday Times deals reporter who Betaville has had the pleasure of working with at several different publications.
Some of Dan's memorable M&A scoops include revealing: the detail of Mediclinic's bid £1.3 billion bid for Spire Healthcare; Aveva's merger Schneider Electric; and unveiling Li Ka Shing's attempt to buy O2 from Telefonica for £9 billion.
I have pasted the links to Dan's scoops below:..
Oh look - French IT services company Atos has finally confirmed its making a (hostile?) bid for Gemalto, effecitvely confirming Betaville's original scoop from April this year. I have pasted the link below:
Last week esteemed colleagues at The Times reported that Hammerson's takeover of rival Intu was a "stupid deal". Below is the link:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hammerson-swoop-for-rival-intu-is-stupiddeal-8xcvnhxkh
However, nobody in the excellent piece was talking on the record...
Remember James Henderson?
He was the chief executive of Bell Pottinger until the firm imploded over its work for the Gupta family in South Africa. And the firm's implosion dominated mainstream media organisations thanks to Lord Bell's car crash interview on BBC's Newsnight and Henderson's high-profile connections, including his glamorous girlfriend Heather Kerzner, the South African born socialite...
Poor old Michael Burt. Rival media organisations were being rather mean to him today after Exane BNP Paribas analyst published an "underperform" research note at 6:00am on Intu Properties, which suggested a takeover is highly unlikely. An hour later Hammerson announces the £3.4 billion purchase of Intu. Betaville, though, knows how difficult it is to land accurate M&A stories, so will refrain from making fun of Burt...
Aim-listed oil and gas company Cabot Energy is working on a a multi-million pound equity fundraising.
According to sources claiming to be familiar with the matter, Cabot Energy is looking to raise up to £15 million via a placing.
However, it's not clear what price the new shares will be issued at. Sources also said it's unclear what the fresh capital is for.
Cabot Energy's main asset is an onshore light oil production project in Canada, according to its website...
It's been ten years since Sir Christopher Hohn (then just Chris Hohn) launched a viscious activist campaign against ABN Amro by calling for the dismissal of its chief executive and a sale of the business. That move ultimately led to takeover approaches from Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland. And we all know what happened next.....
[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].