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.
Thursday, 23 January 2020, 9:27 pm
How odd: fomer LSE boss Xavier Rolet is stepping down as chief executive of Sir Michael Hintze's hedge fund CQS after just one year.
Now, readers might recall that Betaville was the first to unveil the timing of Xavier Rolet's appointment as the boss of Sir Michael Hintze's hedge fund CQS in late 2018 after learning about the story down the pub. See the link below:..
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Wednesday, 22 January 2020, 1:13 pm
ICG is said to be the preferred bidder for Hedge Fund Intelligence-owner Pageant Media.
People following the situation said ICG, also known as Intermediate Capital Group, is now in "advanced talks" to buy Pageant Media for between £100 million and £150 million.
Bankers from DC Advisory are working with ICG on the acquisition said people familiar with the matter.
I expect a deal to be wrapped in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for announcement.....
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersTuesday, 21 January 2020, 5:03 pm
Betaville IntelligenceTuesday, 21 January 2020, 3:05 pm
So, it turns out Betaville's UNCOOKED ALERT from mid December on Quilter was barking up the right tree after all.
According to Bloomberg, Waburg Pincus has been in talks about buying Quilter for around $4 billion although the news organisation seemed to suggest discussions are no longer "live".
Below is the link to my original piece from mid December:..
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Monday, 20 January 2020, 10:08 am
Another day, another great tale from William Turvill, a former staff writer at the Mail on Sunday's business section that has joined the club of global jobbing freelancers.
Yesterday, Turvill - known as the Genteel Hustler for his extremely polite but dogged story-getting style - landed an interesting piece in the Mail on Sunday's business section about Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the billionaire founder of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei. Below is the link:..
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Thursday, 16 January 2020, 6:24 pm
It didn't take long for the Genteel Hustler, also known as William Turvill of the Mail on Sunday, to get hustling out in Vancouver, Canada.
Today the Genteel Hustler is bylined in the The Daily Telegraph, my former employer. Below is a link to the piece:..
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Thursday, 16 January 2020, 3:59 pm
American hedge fund Centrebridge is said to be one of the more enthusiastic parties interested in HNA's Swissport, the Swiss airport cargo handling group.
Readers might recall that Betaville reported late last year China's embattled HNA Group is once again trying to offload Swissport, the airport cargo handling group, via bankers from NM Rothschild and boutique firm Benedetto Gartland & Company...
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Betaville IntelligenceWednesday, 15 January 2020, 2:20 pm
It turns out it was Krupa Global Investments, the Czech activist, that was the "unusual" investor buying some of the stake sold last week by NMC Health's largest Gulf-based shareholders.
Below is a link to Krupa's announcement, some blurb about the firm and also Betaville's original piece:..
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Exclusive to Betaville Intelligence subscribersWednesday, 15 January 2020, 1:28 pm
Wednesday, 15 January 2020, 1:10 pm
Fresh details have emerged about the Saudi Arabian group that has built up a shareholding in Burford Capital, the embattled litigation funder.
Mithaq - which recently disclosed a 5.1pc stake in Burford Capital - is a backed by the Al-Rahji family, according to Betaville's people in the Gulf...
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Betaville IntelligenceTuesday, 14 January 2020, 2:59 pm
Engie's chief executive, Isabelle Kocher, talked about buying Suez with the French government last year without telling her board, according to Bloomberg.
Today's piece caught my eye as I was scanning the Bloomberg terminal as Betaville reported a rather similar tale around the time Miss Kocher is said to have been talking to the French government about buying Suez. I have pasted the link to that piece below:..
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Friday, 10 January 2020, 3:45 am
Simon English of the Evening Standard's business section yesterday unleased another fine column and ultimately suggested Marks & Spencer should merge with John Lewis. Below is link to Simon's piece:
https://www.standard.co.uk/business/ms-s-future-be-small-be-ethical-and-buy-john-lewis-a4330336.html..
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Betaville IntelligenceThursday, 9 January 2020, 2:50 pm
NMC Health, the London-listed private hospitals company based in the United Arab Emirates, may see an "unusual" investor come onto its shareholder register that could spark another round of takeover speculation.
Earlier this week, lenders to two of NMC Health's largest Gulf-based shareholders forced them to sell $493 million of stock, around 15pc, via an accelerated bookbuild. The share sale was believed to have been a margin call by Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse...
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Wednesday, 8 January 2020, 10:04 am
Splashed across the front page of the venerable Financial Times is a "scoop" generated by an interview with Mark Carney, the guvnor of the Bank of England, by Lionel Barber, the outgoing editor of the paper.
It's a brilliant interview to land but just a shame that Mr Carney trots out so many statements of the obvious, such as "it's generally true that there's much less ammunition for all the major central banks [to fight recessions] than they previously had"...
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Tuesday, 7 January 2020, 9:17 pm
This doesn't look good: two of the larger Abu Dhabi-based shareholders in NMC Health are trying to offload $490 million of stock in the embattled gulf-based healthcare group via their lenders amid a bear raid from Muddy Waters, the most feared short seller. Below is the top-line from the this evening's announcement and link:..
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Tuesday, 7 January 2020, 10:12 am
If Betaville had a pound for every time an analyst, banker or portfolio manager talked up the possibility of Sir Brian Souter taking the bus and rail company he founded, Stagecoach, private I would definately be richer than I am now (well, to be honest that wouldn't be too hard to achieve)...
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Monday, 6 January 2020, 9:06 pm
It's seems Betaville was being a bit harsh in my last post on the charming old buffer when I wrote his fund was on course to finish as one of the worst performing European hedge funds of 2019. Below is the link to that article:
https://www.www.betaville.co.uk/news/is-the-tide-turning-for-odey-the-brexiteer-the-ser/..
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Friday, 3 January 2020, 4:50 pm
They have been feted as Britain's top rainmakers. Yes, that's Sir Simon Robey and Simon Warshaw. Ever since they left their respective megabanks (Morgan Stanley and UBS) in 2013 and set up Robey Warshaw much smoke has been blown up their respective bottoms about how brilliant they are at advising some of Britain's biggest companies on mergers & acquisitions...
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Thursday, 2 January 2020, 10:46 am
Having worked as a financial hack for the last fifteen years I guess it wasn't too hard to predict there will be plenty of "prediction" pieces at this time of the year.
How else you do fill a newspaper, website or Bloomborg terminal during a news vacuum at the end/beginning of the year?
Perhaps the most bizarre prediction piece came from Matthew Lynn, a business columnist for The Daily Telegraph, my former employer...
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Tuesday, 31 December 2019, 4:15 pm
Competitors like to write off little old Betaville but this website was punching above its weight in 2019, landing a series of exclusive genuine "scoops" throughout the year...
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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].