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.
Oh look - I see Blackstone and D Carnegie have this morning confirmed this week's Tip TV tale about the US private equity firm sniffing around the Swedish property group.
Here are the links:
and this morning's news:..
I have a little update on the Cypress Semiconductors tale aired by the chaps over at FT Alphaville at the end of last week.
In case you don't recall, Bryce Elder of the Financial Times wrote on markets live last Friday about how a Chinese private equity firm, Summitview Capital, was trying to buy a US-listed company called Cypress Semiconductor. Here is a link to his piece:..
If your interested in watching me waffle on about M&A then click on the link below.
Last week there were a flurry stories in the British press about how active and succesful the Serious Fraud Office has been recently...
I have a little update on the Wirecard story I wrote about a few weeks ago.
Regular readers will be well aware that about a month ago I broke a story about how Wirecard is/was in talks with a mystery Chinese investor, thought to be China Mobile, about purchasing a 25pc stake in Wirecard or, possibly, the entire company...
Strolling down Mount Street (which is in the heart of Mayfair, one of the most salubrious parts of London) at 16:45 yesterday I spotted the charasmatic Crispin Odey chatting to a grey-haired friend (or business contact?).
Dressed in a blue (linen?) suit the fund manager from the upper eschelons of British society appeared to be on top form, laughing and smiling during his roadside chat with the grey haired bloke...
Unsurprisingly, I have had a few people on the blower whinging about my Mead Johnson story from March following yesterday's news about Danone agreeing a deal to buy WhiteWave for $12.5 billion.
In case you don't recall, I revealed in mid-March that Mead Johnson had begun working with the sharp suited types from Lazard following interest from Nestle and Danone...
Hat tip to hacks Arash Massoudi and James Fontanella-Kahn over the Financial Times for landing the scoop overnight about Danone's $12.5 billion acquisition of health food specialist WhiteWave Foods. The deal was subsequently announced this morning.
I suspect Danone's purchase of Whitewave means any potential acquistion of baby food maker Mead Johnson by Danone is likely to be off the table for quite some time...
This isn't exactly earth shattering news but I did pick up over a sumptuous lunch yesterday that FTSE 250-listed Bodycote is looking to appoint new advisers.
Word is the 'thermal processing specialist' is carrying out a beauty parade for new corporate brokers, one of the few remnants of "gentlemany capitalism" from a bygone era of the City of London...
Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche has once again been studying a multi-billon dollar purchase of American rare disease specialist BioMarin Pharmaceutical, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
I understand that, so far, the majority of work and analysis on BioMarin has been carried out by Roche's own executives, led by Boris Zaitra, head of M&A...
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that deals that were being looked at before the Brexit referendum have either been parked or completely shelved.
Indeed, for the last couple of weeks I have been chasing a tale about a takeover of a rather large London-listed industrial company but was told yesterday the transaction has been put on hold because of the result of the Brexit referendum...
So, it would appear Crispin Odey hasn't done as well as one might have expected from Brexit.
Mayfair types tell me Odey's flagship European fund is only up 6.8pc for the month of June.
I guess the 10pc market move higher since the post Brexit sell off hasn't helped Odey's short positioning based on his extremely bearish outlook.
That means year to date Crispin's fund is still down 26.5pc, according to one chap familiar with figures...
It's a Monday, so regular readers are likely to be expecting another Tip TV session with the urbane Zak Mir.
But this also gives me the opportunity to introduce readers to a newly-designed Betaville. I hope you like the new website.
Anyway, that's enough of the self promotion. Below is the link to today's session.
I have a little update about the looming cull at Daniel Stewart.
I hear between 10 and 15 people were let go yesterday from the stockbroker.
And I suspect Daniel Stewart won't be the only broker to be throwing people out over the next few weeks.....
The venerable Wall Street Journal has just landed a cracking scoop about Mondelez submitting a $23 billion takeover bid for rival Hershey. Hat tip to those hacks who dug up that jackanory. Here is a link to their piece:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/mondelez-makes-takeover-bid-for-hershey-1467297248..
Perhaps those (I have to include myself here) predicting a slowdown in UK M&A post Brexit spoke too soon.
News Corp - the publishing company controlled by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch - has just announced it is purchasing Talksport-owner Wireless Group for £220 million. Here is a link to the regulatory news service announcement:..
If your interested in the prospects for dealmaking post the Brexit referendum this (click on the link below) piece from FT hacks is worth a read (if you pay for a subscription or can sidestep the paywall).
Enjoy: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7eeb15a2-3dea-11e6-8716-a4a71e8140b0.html#axzz4CsoYi2Sd..
There is more gloomy news from London's small cap stockbroking industry.
I hear Daniel Stewart, which has seen its shares suspended, has this week begun a major cull, possibly about a third of its work force.
Whether this latest purge is connected to Brexit or just an extension of the general malaise in the industry remains to be seen.
I asked Peter Shea, chief executive of Daniel Stewart, about the job losses but he declined to comment...
Here's is a link to today's session on Tip TV with the erudite Zak Mir.
It looks like my story from yesterday was bang on the money.
Indeed, just a few hours after I published yesterday morning charming Crispin got on the front foot to go on the record about his recent strong performance in June and also from the result of the referendum.
In case you missed it, here are links to yesterday's follow up pieces:..
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