UNCOOKED ALERT: Affirm Holdings Inc said to .....
Monday, 11 April 2022, 7:07 pm
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.
UNCOOKED ALERT: Alimentation Couche-Tard said to ... - Part 7
Monday, 11 April 2022, 10:48 am
Bloomberg is tipping Carrefour, the France-listed supermarket giant, as one of the most likely takeover targets of 2022.
Late last week the news agency claimed: "Carrefour SA beat out telecom and media companies to top the list of mergers and acquisitions targets in Europe, as dealmaking starts to recover from its worst quarter since summer 2020"...
Ascential said to eye £1.5 billion break up, reveals Sky News
Saturday, 9 April 2022, 9:59 am
The old Mark "The Kleinmanator" Kleinman of Sky News is being rather hyperactive at the moment.
Yesterday, Kleiny landed the scoop about Vodafone trying to buy part of Talk Talk and this morning he has just published a tale about London-listed Ascential weighing a break up that could see events and exhibitions company list some of its operations in the US...
UNCOOKED ALERT: Sartorius AG said to .....
Thursday, 7 April 2022, 6:28 pm
Bloomberg reveals Blackstone, Florentino Perez/Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA, Global Infrastructure Partners and Brookfield all said to consider EURO 15 billion takeover bids for Italy's Atlantia
Thursday, 7 April 2022, 12:21 am
So, it looks like rivals at Bloomberg have nailed the Atlantia scoop about the Italian airport to toll roads owner and operator.
According to the news agency there are several parties circling the business including American private equity giant Blackstone, Canadian firm Brookfield and Global Insfrastructure Partners, the specialist infrastructure fund that invested in Gatwick Airport...
Spotted: Baron Spencer of Alresford
Tuesday, 5 April 2022, 5:09 pm
There is a good reason Graham "Ruddy" Ruddick, outgoing deputy business editor of The Times, named his new Substack newsletter Off to Lunch.
It's because lunch is where hacks often get their best tips and stories.
But sometimes you can pick up a decent snippet on the way to lunch (today's venue was Al Duca, a quality Italian eaterie just off Piccadilly)...
UNCOOKED ALERT: NCino Inc ... - Part 2..
Monday, 4 April 2022, 8:02 pm
Ruddy at The Times... - Part 2
Monday, 4 April 2022, 7:47 pm
Farewell then Graham Ruddick, a fine young business journalist and chum of Betaville's from our time working together at The Daily Telegraph.
The deputy business editor of The Times is leaving the newspaper to set up his own thing at Substack, the start up that provides hacks, writers and anybody else a platform to set up their own publishable stream of consciousness...
easyJet boss says airline doesn't "need acquisition or partner", according to Bloomberg
Monday, 4 April 2022, 9:33 am
There was an odd headline story floating about on Bloomberg last week about easyJet, the London-listed budget airline that last September received a merger approach from Wizz Air.
Johan Lundgren, the boss of easyJet, was quoted on the record as saying easyJet "doesn't need an acquisition or partner".
But who said easyJet does need an acquisition or partner?..
Chelsea FC on the block; Abramovich said to be seeking £3 billion, according to reports - Part 12
Friday, 1 April 2022, 10:59 am
Apologies for the tardy update on the Chelsea FC situation Betavillers; I have been a bit busy digging out stories on some rather larger public companies recently.
Anyway, it would appear, according to reports, that investment bankers at Raine - which is advising on the sale for Roman Abramovich/the British Government - have created a "second round" of bidding with four serious bidding groups. I will list them below:..
Tags: Chelsea, Chelsea FC
Royal Bank of Canada agrees deal to buy Brewin Dolphin for £1.6 billion
Thursday, 31 March 2022, 8:07 am
One of the oldest City of London stockbrokers is set to fall into the hands of a North American predator.
Brewin Dolphin has agreed a deal to sell itself to Royal Bank of Canada's wealth management division.
RBC is paying 515p a share for Brewin Dolphin or around £1.6 billion...
UNCOOKED ALERT: Currys said to .....
Tuesday, 29 March 2022, 8:33 am
The former Chancellor of the Exchequer, the boutique investment bank firm and, er, insert anything they are both involved with here... - Part 6
Monday, 28 March 2022, 3:40 pm
This morning National Grid announced it is selling a 60pc stake in its transmission and metering business to a consortium led by Australian infrastructure house Macquarie for £9.6 billion including debt.
One of the advisory firms named on the bottom of the press release that worked on the deal for National Grid was Robey Warshaw, the advisory firm that last year recruited George Osborne, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, as a partner...
UNCOOKED ALERT: Rolls-Royce said to .....
Friday, 25 March 2022, 4:15 pm
UNCOOKED ALERT: Homeserve said to ... - Part 2
Thursday, 24 March 2022, 4:26 pm
Oh look - I see Canadian infrastructure giant Brookfield has confirmed it is considering a takeover offer for London-listed Homeserve.
Off course, this shouldn't been too surprising for subscribers to Betaville Intelligence as this website published a piece earlier on today pointing out that the company may soon be on the receiving end of an approach. Below are the relevant links:..
Tags: Homeserve
UNCOOKED ALERT: Homeserve said to .....
Thursday, 24 March 2022, 3:03 pm
Carnival may have to tap investors for fresh equity, again...
Wednesday, 23 March 2022, 7:57 pm
There is talk in the market of another equity fundraising looming at Carnival, the FTSE 100-listed cruise operator.
Well, that's because scribblers at Morgan Stanley just issued a research piece noting the possibility of another share sale.
"We see rising risk of equity issuance," wrote analysts Jamie Rollo, Thomas Allen and Adrija Chakraborty in a note to clients seen by Betaville...
Tags: Carnival, Morgan Stanley
RARE ALERT: GlaxoSmithKline said to ... - Part 5
Tuesday, 22 March 2022, 4:24 pm
The European-based investor group seeking to persuade the board of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals to carry out a strategic review has appointed a US lawyer to manage an action group for other investors looking to back its activist campaign.
The move comes as the investment consortium, led by the Switzerland-based MKT Tactical Fund, recently wrote a second letter to the chairman of Aurinia, George Milne Junior...
Tags: GlaxoSmithKline
UNCOOKED ALERT: THG Group said to ... said to ... - Part 11
Tuesday, 22 March 2022, 9:29 am
Charles Allen - the former boss of ITV and now Lord Allen of Kensington - is set to become THG's new (non-executive) chairman. Below is a link to this morning's announcement confirming the appointment:
UNCOOKED ALERT: Ageas said to ... - Part 8..
Monday, 21 March 2022, 3:32 pm
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