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.
Monday, 29 August 2016, 12:32 pm
French industrial gases giant Air Liquide is exploring a sale of the company that invented Scuba diving equipment and was founded by the well-known oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
Air Liquide has asked bankers at Goldman Sachs to find a buyer for Aqua Lung, which was formerly known as La Spirotechnique. People familiar with the matter said information packs have already been sent to potential buyers, many of whom are likely to be private equity firms...
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Thursday, 25 August 2016, 8:24 pm
I see The Kleinmanator of Sky News today ran a story about how Rio Tinto had dumped its longstanding broker Credit Suisse and replaced the Swiss institution with Deutsche Bank.
The core facts of Kleinman's "exclusive" story are eerily similar to a piece I did a week or so ago on little old Betaville. Here is the link:..
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Wednesday, 24 August 2016, 8:00 am
Hilarious (or ridiculous, perhaps) - the Financial Times is now reporting little old Betaville's AIG/Ascot scoop but attributing the tale as "first reported" by the Wall Street Journal. Here is the link:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9e87f5ae-696b-11e6-a0b1-d87a9fea034f.html#axzz4IEMfWzpj..
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Tuesday, 23 August 2016, 8:58 pm
I see the Twitterati on Twitter (there are quite a few words beginning with twit, here) are claiming the mighty Wall Street Journal this afternoon broke the story or landed the "scoop" about AIG selling Ascot, the Lloyd's of London insurer.
Funny that because I'm sure I published a story this morning about how AIG is gearing up to sell Ascot. Here is the link:..
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Tuesday, 23 August 2016, 7:35 am
That last bastion of old school broking - the Lloyd's of London insurance market - may soon be a fertile environment for dealmakers.
I'm hearing from good industry sources that US insurance giant AIG is gearing up for a potential sale of Ascot. Ascot is a member of the Lloyd's market, where it's not unusual for brokers and underwriters to go out for a long boozy lunch and return to work fours hours later completely inebriated. In fact, in some places it's encouraged...
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Monday, 22 August 2016, 2:53 pm
Zak was down in the dumps today, so I cheered him up by blathering on for ten minutes about the curent red hot M&A market. Here is the link to today's session:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaYY-9wr9b0..
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Monday, 22 August 2016, 8:35 am
Hacks at the FT last night landed a rather good scoop about Pfizer winning the long running Medivation auction with a $14 billion takeover bid. Here is the link:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0b556924-67e5-11e6-a0b1-d87a9fea034f.html#axzz4Hzh24lte..
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Saturday, 20 August 2016, 2:44 pm
I see the most of the British newspaper market reports ran the easyJet bid tale for a second day in a row.
However, the likes of Bryce Elder of the Financial Times and Martin Waller of The Times put a somewhat cynical spin on the jackanory, alluding to the gossip as a "silly season" story that typically come about during the dog days of August...
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Friday, 19 August 2016, 11:05 am
It really does appear Crispin has been caught short - above is an image (courtsey of Bloomberg) showing the Odey European flagship fund covering many of the fund's short positions.
Or, perhaps the bear is finally capitulating.....
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Wednesday, 17 August 2016, 9:00 am
Things have gone from bad to worse for the charasmatic Crispin this year. It's clear the Brexit bounce (following the market sell off) for his flagship European fund was only temporary and now he is down 29.2pc (according to the latest investment letter seen by little old Betaville).
Still, what's impressive is that rather than capitulating Odey is backing his overall bearish outlook by sticking most of his fund in gold. Punchy!..
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Tuesday, 16 August 2016, 11:45 am
Typically, August is one of the quietest periods for M&A. But this year things have really been turned on their head, with this Augsut fast becoming one of the busiest I can recall for dealmaking.
Today, Eyk Henning of the venerated Wall Street Journal landed the mega scoop about Praxair's $60 billion merger talks with Linde. Hap tip to the intrepid Eyk for landing that blockbuster jackanory. Here is the link in case you missed it:..
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Monday, 15 August 2016, 4:40 pm
The lads and ladettes over at FT Alphaville may have knocked off for the week but little old Betaville continues unabated. So, here is a link to today's Tip TV session.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1UHg-Tk6MA..
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Monday, 15 August 2016, 2:51 pm
I see Rank, 888 Holdings and William Hill have all effectively confirmed my tale from the weekend in the Mail on Sunday and on Betaville yesterday that the "consortium" was planning to raise its indicative offer for the bookie.
Here are the links to the various statements that came out this morning: ..
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Sunday, 14 August 2016, 6:02 pm
Well, you may have noticed that today's Mail on Sunday business splash on William Hill and Entertainment One carried my by-line. That's because I was doing some freelance work for the paper last week. In case you missed it, here is the link:..
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Saturday, 13 August 2016, 7:18 pm
Here's a little titbit for those readers craving deal scoops (well this one is more of a scoopette) over a weekend.
Little old Betaville understands Stategic Value Partners, a distressed debt hedge fund investor, is in the early stages of exploring a sale of Linpac, the packaging giant that employs over 2000 people...
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Thursday, 11 August 2016, 12:57 pm
Another delicious lunch has just yielded another story about a corporate broking pitch in the offing.
This time it's Rio Tinto, the FTSE 100-listed mining giant, that has been making corporate brokers, including the incumbents, pitch for the mandate to be the company's 'eyes and ears' in the market...
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Wednesday, 10 August 2016, 4:06 pm
Here is more evidence that "people familiar with the matter" were talking utter codswallop when briefing journalists a couple of weeks ago that my scoop in The Sunday Times wasn't "quite right" because Rank and 888 Holdings weren't talking about a merger ahead of a bid for William Hill.
In today's statement Rank and 888 said:..
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Tuesday, 9 August 2016, 6:53 pm
I must say this William Hill situation really has thrown up some quite bizarre behaviour by "people close to the situation".
I understand that some "people close to the situation" (you know who you are) had been claiming my scoop from a couple of weeks ago in The Sunday Times about Rank and 888 holding merger talks ahead of making a £3 billion bid for William Hill wasn't a true "scoop" because we didn't get the story "quite right"...
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Monday, 8 August 2016, 12:45 pm
After almost two years of trying the mischevious Zak Mir finally gets my official job title right. Click on the link below to witness it - and also a bit of analysis on the IHG story that broke over the weekend.
https://youtu.be/AWUhg3uAMqM..
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Sunday, 7 August 2016, 1:43 pm
Undoubtedly, Daniel Dunkley's story in today's The Sunday Times about Anbang Insurance weighing a £7 billion takeover bid for InterContinentalhotels is one of the biggest corporate scoops of the weekend. Here is the link to Dan's piece:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/chinese-line-up-7bn-swoop-on-holiday-inn-giant-8r7bbgs68..
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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].