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.
Genel's shares have leapt around 60pc since Betaville first queried why mysterious construction tycoon Hassan Gozal had built a 15pc stake via his vehicle Daax Corp in the controversial oil company in July this year.
Now, some people, in part, have pinned Genel's recent share price rally to the recent news about Rosneft investing almost $1 billion in gas pipelines in Kurdsitan...
Betaville is in a particularly good mood today because this week has seen several of this website's scoops and scoopettes confirmed by the companies involved.
First of - Aim-listed Rose Petroleum this morning confirmed yesterday's RARE Alert about the company's fundraising. I have pasted the link to the RNS statement below:..
There aren't too many new M&A deals knocking around the UK at the moment but here is a bit of RARE about a little equity fundraising taking place on the AIM market.
Rose Petroleum is working on an equity fundraising of up to £3 million, according to sources claiming to be familiar with the matter.
These sources said Rose Petroleum - which has an oil and gas project in Utah, the US - is looking to raise between £2 million and £3 million at around 4p a share...
Younger readers might not remember Morgan Grenfell. It was one of the City of London's oldest and most influential investment bankers until it was bought by Deutsche Bank in the late 1980's for almost $1.5 billion.
Unsurprisingly, most of Morgan Grenfell's top bankers - such as Simon Mckenzie-Smith, who was once enticed into a game of spoof with Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley to settle Merrill Lynch's bill - left soon after it was gobbled up by the Germans...
I see Reabold Resources has finally confirmed Betaville's RARE report from Monday. I have pasted the link below in case you missed it:
Part of this story is already "out there" but Betaville stumbled across a little snippet on the Reabold Resources placing, so I thought I would air it on the website for loyal readers that are interested in the world of small-cap equity fundraisings...
Financial public relations firms are providing City hacks with a flurry of decent stories at the moment - and not just about the clients they represent.
The latest tale is about Instinctif Partners, where another one of Betaville's former bosses from The Daily Telegraph now works...
Hat tip to Dom Walsh over at The Times for managing to needle out a genuinly interesting "new" line out of Kenny Alexander, the boss of acquisitive gaming group GVC, about potential merger talks with rivals after the regulatory review of sector.
In today's City people column in the The Times Dom reveals that, other than Ladbrokes Coral, GVC also has an interest in a potential combination with William Hill. Here is the link:..
The journo/PR world has been trying to work out where James Quinn, head of the business section at my former employer The Daily Telegraph, was heading off to since he announced his departure on Twitter a couple of weeks ago.
Well, Betaville can reveal James Quinn - a jolly nice chap and former colleague during my time at the venerable newspaper - is joining Credit Suisse...
Last week, Tony Pidgley and a bunch of other Berkeley Group directors sold £45 million worth of shares in the London-focused housebuilder. And yesterday, Redrow founder Steve Morgan slotted 25.9 million shares or 7pc of the company to raise £153 million.
Who can blame them as markets/ equities prices are once again flirting with all time highs...
Gemalto, the digital security company, is once again at the centre of takeover speculation.
According to sources claiming to be familiar with the matter, Oracle has made fresh approach for Gemalto valuing the business at between EURO 56 and Euro 59 a share.
Atos, the French IT services company, is also said to be keeping an eye on Gemalto, said these sources claiming to be familiar with the matter...
This time it would appear the takeover target that is likely to change hands is Small World, a digital money transfer business.
That's because a private equity firm backed by the relatives of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, is weighing a sale or float of Small World...
I see David Montgomery has today been edged out of the Express Newspaper deal by former employer and business partner Trinity Mirror, which is now looking to buy the Daily Express and Daily Star outright.
So what could Monty - who last year set up his National World venture to consolidate the national newspaper sector - be up to next?..
Josh Kosman's tale in the New York Post (see the link below) about Goldman Sachs pitching Boeing to make a $30 billion counterbid for Rockwell Collins caught Betaville's eye today.
http://nypost.com/2017/09/05/goldman-sachs-wanted-boeing-to-bid-on-airplane-parts-maker/..
Brexit-supporting Crispin Odey might think that Betaville has got it in for him as this website has run a 20-part series highlighting the veteran hedgie's travails with his flagship Odey European Fund...
Hat tip the to the Kleinmanator for tonight's Aveva / Schneider merger scoop. Kleinman and I didn't always get along when we worked together at The Daily Telegraph but credit where credit is due. Here is a link to his piece:
http://news.sky.com/story/ftse-250-software-group-aveva-to-unveil-3bn-schneider-merger-11020604 ..
Central Asia Metals, a copper mining company, is in advanced discussions about carrying out a large M&A deal in Macedonia.
This morning the AIM-listed company suspended its shares following an enquiry from Betaville on Friday regarding the deal talks.
It's not clear which company Central Asia Metals is in talks with but industry sources suggested the takeover target could be the Sasa mine, a Lead and Zinc producer based in North East Macedonia...
[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].