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.
Wednesday, 1 March 2017, 5:06 pm
Oh look - Pyrrho Investments has confirmed my tale from earlier on in the day and last week. In case you missed it, I have pasted the announcement below:
Pyrrho Investments Limited ("Pyrrho"), an investment fund, notes the Refinancing update announcements made by Premier Oil ("the Company") from February 2017 to date.
Pyrrho is one of the 3 largest convertible bondholders in Premier Oil with approximately 10% of the total convertible bonds in issuance...
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Wednesday, 1 March 2017, 11:40 am
Premier Oil this morning attempted to present a deal with its convertible bond holders as a fait accompli. See the link below:
http://www.investegate.co.uk/premier-oil-plc--pmo-/rns/refinancing-update/201703010700211406Y/..
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Wednesday, 1 March 2017, 8:47 am
When I was a young reporter on The Daily Telegraph in the mid noughties working a late shift I was somewhat bamboozled by the first editions of the Daily Mail and The Daily Express.
Why?
Well, that's because the front page (of the main book) of one those newspapers led with a story about how prices are set to soar while the other claimed on the front page (of the main book, too) that houses prices were set to crash...
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Betaville IntelligenceTuesday, 28 February 2017, 3:45 pm
Sportingbet owner GVC Holdings is said to be gearing up for its next major takeover deal.
According to sources familiar with the matter, investment banks - such as JP Morgan - are said to have put in place a big debt financing package for GVC to use as funds for major M&A tansaction...
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Monday, 27 February 2017, 6:58 pm
Re-visiting the British Sunday newspapers on a Monday is one of my favourite things to do as I often discover nuggets of info I failed to spot over the weekend when I'm scouring the business sections...
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Monday, 27 February 2017, 1:27 pm
Apologies if I look like I have just stepped out of the shower during this session. It litreally tipped it down as I was running from the the tube station to the studio, so I got soaked. Anyway, here is a link to today's session (in which half way through I refer to last year's "election" but meant "referendum"):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0OuQSAuxO4&feature=youtu.be..
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Monday, 27 February 2017, 8:03 am
Remember the tales of plans to build a £1 billion residential skycraper in Canary Wharf?
Well, yesterday The Sunday Times published the latest twist to the story on the front page of its business section. Here is the link in case you missed yesterday's piece:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/skyscraper-tycoons-held-g09ztsrzx..
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Friday, 24 February 2017, 3:49 pm
Premier Oil put out this rather odd statement - http://www.investegate.co.uk/Index.aspx?searchtype=2&words=Premier+Oil - this afternoon after its shares tanked over the last few days.
Clearly, the market was starting to worry about the completion of the long awaited and somewhat painstaking $2.8 billion debt refinancing deal Premier has been trying to do over the last twelve months...
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Friday, 24 February 2017, 2:19 pm
Here's an interesting little story about a big financial publishing company that gave me one of my first jobs in financial journalism.
I hear the Mergermarket Group - publisher of dealmakers' favourite publications, such as online news services Mergermarket, Dealreporter and Debtwire - is on the verge of selling its life sciences division, Infinata, for up to $20 million...
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Thursday, 23 February 2017, 12:37 pm
I guess today's stock market reports in the Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph edge the flag pole alert series further forwards. In case you missed it, I have pasted a link to Bryce Elder's report in the Financial Times below:
https://www.ft.com/content/80db9440-f929-11e6-9516-2d969e0d3b65..
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Wednesday, 22 February 2017, 6:51 pm
Two days on and the upper echelons of the financial media world are still picking over the carcass of the failed Kraft Heinz / 3G / Warren Buffett / Unilever deal.
Probably the best newspaper piece out there is the "tick tock" by Arash Massoudi and James Fontanella-Kahn in today's Financial Times. Here is the link in case you haven't read it:..
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Wednesday, 22 February 2017, 11:21 am
Ben Marlow, a former colleague from a long time ago and now a big cheese at The Daily Telegraph, wrote this opinion piece - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/21/botched-bid-unilever-shows-rules-game-have-changed-foreign-takeovers/ - on the changing nature of dealmaking in Britain...
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Betaville IntelligenceTuesday, 21 February 2017, 2:31 pm
Centaur Media PLC, publisher of Marketing Week, is said to be weighing a sale of its Homebuilding and Renovation division.
According to sources close to the situation, London-listed Centaur Media has offered buy-out firms the opportunity to express an interest in purchasing Homebuilding and Renovation, which consists of a magazine and an event...
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Tuesday, 21 February 2017, 9:12 am
I see the lead item in today's Daily Mail city diary is about how leading investment banks missed out on a massive fee bonanza after the Kraft Heinz's $143 billion takeover approach for Unilever collapsed...
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Monday, 20 February 2017, 3:47 pm
Below is a link to today's session with Jenny Hammond and Zak Mir - and, unsurprisingly, we spent a lot of time talking about Unilever!
http://tiptv.co.uk/potential-takeover-targets-kraft-heinz-betaville/..
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Friday, 17 February 2017, 1:15 pm
Take a bow Bryce Elder, stock market reporter over at the Financial Times. The intrepid hack has just landed the M&A scoop of the year, decade or, perhaps, century with his tale this morning about Kraft Heinz's £100 billion plus takeover approach for Unilever. If you follow M&A, I'm sure you have seen the statements.
I suspect rival hacks, such as the Kleinmanator of Sky News or team Bloomborg, will have trouble topping that one. Good luck to them...
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Friday, 17 February 2017, 8:49 am
Will 2017 be a better year for Crispin Odey, one of Britain's best-known hedge fund managers?
Well, in the some respects things are on the up for the charasmatic buffer, who once spent over £150,000 on a Palladian style mansion for his pet chickens...
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Thursday, 16 February 2017, 10:56 am
US-listed Radius Health saw it's shares gain almost 7pc yesterday thanks to a piece on Streetinsider.com about Shire renewing its interest in the business. I have pasted the link to the Streetinsider article below:
http://www.streetinsider.com/dr/news.php?id=12554558&gfv=1..
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Wednesday, 15 February 2017, 11:30 am
The chaps and chapettes at FT Alphaville appear to be running behind schedule this week so I thought I should step in and fill the void.
I guess one event the market will be scrutinising will be Liberty Global's full-year results, which I'm told by people familiar with the matter will be unveiled this evening in the US...
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Tuesday, 14 February 2017, 2:14 pm
Oh look - I see US-based medical laser company Cynosure today announced a deal to sell itself to Hologic for $1.6 billion. If you missed the deal announcement click on the link below:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cynosure-m-a-hologic-idUSKBN15T1OI..
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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].