Betaville

Mystery shareholder shuffle at Woodford-backed Oxford Nanopore Technologies

Ping!

A loyal reader gets in touch to point out that there has been a substantial change in the shareholding structure of Oxford Nanopore Technologies, the gene-sequencing company that received investment from beleguered fund manager Neil Woodford.

Below is a link to the Companies House filing history that shows today's purchase of shares and allotment of shares at Oxford Nanopore Technologies:..

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The strange goings-on with Thomas Cook's debt...

Last week there was a report on Bloomberg that some of the lenders to Thomas Cook had begun offloading the company’s debt amid fears about the company’s financial position.

According to Bloomberg, lenders holding around £300 million of Thomas Cook's debt were contacting potential buyers and brokers about selling some of the debt at half its current market value...

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Teneo in the headlines...

Two weeks ago financial and political public relations firm Teneo hit the headlines after the boss of its London office issued a warning to employees about "pooing in the shower", leaving their messy underwear for the cleaner to pick up and throwing up on the company carpets. Below is a link to the peice broken on Guido Fawkes and the follow up in the The Times: ..

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Where have all the "locusts" gone...?

"Locusts!" That's how the German establishment dubbed private equity firms looking for deals in the country a decade ago.

Wind on ten years and KKR - the American buy-out firm lionised in the seminal book Barbarians At The Gate - is backing a $8 billion leveraged buy-out of Axel Springer.

Yet, as far Betaville can see, none of the German establishment have objected to such a "locust" taking control of one Germany's largest media companies...

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Sunday review - United Technologies, Raytheon and Helical Bar

Forget about merger Monday; big takeover scoops are being broken on the weekends these days.

Hat tip to Cara Lombardo - the newish M&A reporter on the venerable Wall Street Journal - who landed what is probably the M&A scoop of the year on Saturday afternoon with a humdinger of a tale about United Technologies Corporation holding advanced talks about a $160 billion merger with smaller rival Raytheon.

Wow!..

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Spence backs Boris, Gover and, er, Hunt...

To the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington, London, where Financial News (one of Betaville's former employers) held its Trading and Technology awards.

And who should be there to pick up a "Lifetime Achievment" award last night?

Well, it was multi-millionaire tycoon Michael Spencer, founder of interdealer broker Icap/NEX group and former Tory party treasurer supremo...

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The retail tycoon, the birthday and the private members' club

Which retail tycoon is this week holding his birthday celebrations at a private club on Berkeley Square that he owns?

Well, that will be Richard Caring, according to Betaville's moles, who have informed me that Annabel's is being readied for a rather large soiree to celebrate the billionaire's birthday.

I wonder, though, whether another high-profile retail tycoon and business partner will be attending the bash?..

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Confirmations, confirmations and more confirmations, again...- Pathfinder Minerals and Cypress Semiconductors

Betaville was pleased to see a couple of his recent jackanories confirmed today as it keeps the naysayers on the back foot.

In case you missed it, Aim-listed Pathfinder Minerals released a statement in which it effectively confirmed "media speculation" first aired on Betaville and then followed up in the Mail on Sunday's Stockwatch column this weekend. I have pasted a link below and also the salient paragraph in the statement from Pathfinder Minerals:..

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Tesla should be takeover target for a European car maker, Apple or private equity, argues Telegraph writer

Sitting in the office on a sunny Saturday afternoon gave Betaville a bit of time to go through the newspapers properly - and in doing so I stumbled across this rather fantastical column in The Daily Telegraph by Matthew Lynn.

In a piece entitled "Time for someone in Europe to step up and snap up Tesla" Lynn dedicates a whole column to the idea that Tesla - the controversial car company led by even more controversial Elon Musk - should be bought...

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The broker, the former employees and the row

A date for the diary: city brokerage Vantage Capital Markets is being dragged to the High Court next week to defend a six figure claim brought by two former employees.

John Thitchener and Gavin Masters are suing VCM for losses they say they suffered after the company refused to pay them out under a partnership agreement...

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A Cypress Semiconductor update: company said to be working with Goldman Sachs on strategic options; three private equity firms circling - sources - The Series Returns

I see Betaville's rivals at Bloomberg have just revealed that Cypress Semiconductors is weighing a sale after receiving takeover interest. Below is a link to the Bloomie piece broken this afternoon:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-29/cypress-semi-said-to-mull-sale-after-getting-takeover-interest..

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The British business hack and the £27 billion European mega-merger...

The British aren't exactly popular on the continent at the moment thanks to the interminable Brexit negotiations.

There is, though, one Brit who has had a hand shaping one of the largest Franco-Italian corporate mergers of 2019.

Baroness Wheatcroft of Blackheath, also known as Patience Wheathcroft, is a non executive director of Fiat Chrysler, which this weekend was outed by the Financial Times as in merger discussions with France's Renault...

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NM Rothschild's move to "conquer Wall Street"...

This piece in The Daily Telegraph's business section - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/05/27/rothschild-chasing-big-dollars-across-pond/ - about the venerable NM Rothschild expanding in the US caught Betaville's eye.

Why?..

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