The confirmations keep on coming for little old Betaville.
This morning FTSE 100-listed Ferguson announced it has struck a deal to sell plumbing merchant Wolseley to Clayton Dubilier & Rice, whose advisers include Sir Terry Leahy, for just over £300 million. Below is the link to the Ferguson statement:..
This morning a consortium of investors led by BlackRock have announced they plan to buy Calisen, the London-listed smart meter company, for £1.4 billion or 261p a share. Below is the link:
The idea of Sir Martin heading stateside for his next deal might have been a curve ball.
In case you don't recall the excellent Alex Lawson noted in the Mail on Sunday's Stockwatch column a few weeks ago that adman dealmaker was over in the US eyeing up deals ahead of Jo Biden becoming president. Below is a link to the Sunday round up piece I wrote on the topic a few weeks ago:..
There are plenty of interesting stories in the British Sunday newspaper sections today, including Neil Craven's piece on the billionaire Issa brothers and their purchase of retail stalwart Asda. Below is the link to Neil's jackanory, which seems to be getting plenty of air time on Twitter this morning:..
The merry-go-round on Britain's Sunday newspaper City desks continues unabated despite these turbulent times.
Betaville understands Jamie "Nimmy" Nimmo, a colleague on the Mail on Sunday's business section, is off to join chums at The Sunday Times as Associate Business Editor...
Another week, another scoop confirmed for Neil "Neily" Craven, Deputy City at the Mail on Sunday.
On Sunday the intrepid retail hack revealed in the Mail on Sunday's business section that New Look was heading for a major restructuring by appointing advisers from Deloitte. Below is the link:..
It would appear former colleagues at The Sunday Times got wind of the Clinigen takeover tale, too.
Yesterday, the business section of the The Sunday Times ran a rather similar tale to Betaville's UNCOOKED Alert from a ten days ago. Below is the link:..
Betaville was slightly perplexed by the fact that only the Mail on Sunday reported the news today about Capital & Counties acquisition of a 26.3pc shareholding in Shaftesbury from Samuel Tak Lee...
If you weren't able to pick up a copy of the Mail on Sunday today you may not have noticed I had a chat with Sir Stelios about the company's board, the airline's precarious financial position and the possiblity of a cash call.
Sir Stelios was on rumbustious form, so I have pasted the link to the piece below if you missed piece:..
The cash calls are coming thick and fast. Indeed, if you read the Sunday papers' business sections today you may have noticed that Neil "Neily" Craven and I unveiled DFS Furniture's plan to tap equity investors for fresh funds.
Mark "The Kleinmanator" Kleinman has today followed up our tale, tweeting the furniture retailer plans to ask investors for £50 million via a placing alongside raising some £70 million of fresh debt...
Hat tip to Oliver Shah, Sabah Meddings, Gabriel Pogrund and Caroline Wheeler at The Sunday Times for digging out today's main book scoop about how the Abu Dhabi-owned ExCel centre was trying to charge the NHS between £2 million and £3 million in rent to the NHS for the new Nightingale hospital. Below is the link:..
I see The Times business section today ran a piece on the front page of its business section about Nestle buying Lily's Kitcken, the upmarket pet food brand.
Now that won't come as much of surprise to regular followers of my work as I first broke the news of Lily's Kitchen hiring advisers late last year in the Mail on Sunday's business section. See below:..
Loyal readers might have noticed an interview piece with Crispin Odey written by yours truly in this weekend's Mail on Sunday. Well, below is a link in case you missed it:
Perhaps charming Crispin will be proved right after all?
Two weeks ago I interviewed the the veteran hedge fund manager and asked him whether he thought the FTSE 100 index could end up at 5000 by the end of the year.
Odey - whose predictions of a stockmarket crash over the last four years have so far been proved to be spectacularly wrong - said that the FTSE 100 at 5000 was "highly probable". Below is a link to the interview in the Mail on Sunday:..
There he is again. William Turvill, also known as the Genteel Hustler from his days working on the Mail on Sunday's business desk, turned up yesterday with another by-line in his former employer's publication.
The Huster's piece is not quite an interview with Megan Markle herself but rather a mini-profile/interview with a "friend" of hers - Beth Herlihy. Below is the link: ..
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.....
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:..
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:..
So farewell Genteel Hustler.
One of Britain's best young financial hacks, William Turvill, is leaving these shores for sunnier climes in Vancouver, Canada.
During his time on the Mail on Sunday's business section Turvill landed multiple scoops around the collapse and potential takeover British steel and was a deft interviewer of heavyweight businessmen, managing to elicit unique, insightful and, occasionally, highly amusing quotes...
Perhaps it isn't all bad news for Crispin Odey: his chum, British prime minister Boris Johnson, won a huge majority for the Tories on Friday.
That comes after Odey called on British business leaders to back Boris in an interview with yours truly for the Mail on Sunday's business section over the summer. Below is a link:..
A good old fashioned dogfight is brewing in the skies above London’s junior stockmarket.
The legal battle between Gama Aviation - an AIM-listed private jet supplier to celebs, such as Lewis Hamilton before he ditched the mode of transport - and one of its customers, millionaire Andre Serruys, centres on allegations of false invoicing, dodgy deals for private jet parts and a failure to maintain Serruys’ plane, a Challenger 601 private jet...
Betaville doesn't get any enjoyment from seeing a company go bust, people lose their jobs and holidaymakers enduring mayhem...
Betaville doesn't enjoy seeing any company collapse into administration but I note the fact that the Daily Mail and others are now reporting that Thomas Cook is on the verge of going under. Below is a link to the Daily Mail piece (which was splashed across the front page of the main book but I think was a follow from the Kleinmanator of Sky News)...
Several weeks ago Betaville copped an earful from a person close to Thomas Cook on a rare Sunday off for a piece I wrote in the Mail on Sunday's business section about the tour operator's restructuring. Below is the link:..
The City of London should be cranking back into fourth gear this week as the summer holidays come to an end. I guess, then, it isn't surprising that there were plenty of compelling tales in the Sunday newspaper business sections today...
There is a young financial hack in the London market who is fast distinguishing himself with some excellent journalism.
His name is William Turvill of the Mail on Sunday and rival business journalists from Financial News were on Twitter yesterday praising one a recent interview with Savvas Savouri, the blunt but amusing economist from Toscafund...
I see former colleague Mark, "the Kleinmanator", Kleinman of Sky News has just published a rather interesting piece about Interserve, a company I have written about recently on Betaville and in the Mail on Sunday's business section (below are the links).
https://www.betaville.co.uk/news/interserve-poised-to-be-put-on-the-block-sources/..
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, appreared to definitively rule out any potential re-nationalisation of BT Group in yesterday's The Sunday Times following reports from Yahoo Finance a couple of weeks ago that Labour was looking at the possibility of taking the telecoms giant back into public ownership.
Below is the link to Oliver Shah and John Collingridge's fascinating piece in yesterday's business sections:..
Mocado, Markado and Ocamark. These are just some of the monikers being used to describe the latest Marks & Spencer / Ocado joint venture tie-up.
Anyway, hat tip to the Evening Standard's Russell Lynch for smoking out the latest iteration of the deal with his scoop today in the paper about the impending transaction. Below is a link to Russell Lynch's piece in case you missed it:..
Once you get past the acres of Brexit coverage there were some decent business jackanories knocking about in the Sunday papers today.
One story that caught Betaville's eye was a tucked away on page 2 of the Mail on Sunday's business section about how Mike Ashley is planning to hire new PR "experts" to look after his "growing retail group". Below is a link to Neil Craven's article:..
Apologies for the lack of posts in the last few days. Betaville has been enjoying a few days of merrymaking and eating chocolate.
Anyway, on arriving back at my desk this morning I was presented with the news that Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and friends have sold some of their shareholdings in Gatwick airport to French firm Vinci for an estimated £2.9 billion...
Neil Craven, a colleague over at the Mail on Sunday's business section, landed a cracking tale this weekend about ailing department store Debenhams...
So, after a hiatus of several months Stefan Persson, the chairman of Hennes & Maurtiz, was today adding to this year's mammoth share purchase.
The Swedish billionaire squire - who owns vaste swathes of Britain's West Country - has this year spent almost $1 billion on buying shares in the company his father founded 71 years ago but today he added another 5.46 million shares to his shareholding, according to Bloomberg...
At first sight it would appear hacks over at Bloomberg followed my scoopette in this weekend's Mail on Sunday about the looming £10 billion Gatwick Airport sale. Below is a link to the Irish Independent's rip off yesterday's Bloomberg follow up, which is dated October 14th (yesterday):..
So, farewell Iain Dey, who until yesterday was the business editor of The Sunday Times, a newspaper Betaville regularly writes for.
Iain and Betaville first worked together back over a decade ago when The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph decided to merge their respective business reporting teams. Below is a scoop we broke together during that period:..
There weren't too many M&A scoops in the business sections this weekend but having worked for The Sunday Times, the Mail on Sunday and The Sunday Telegraph I know how some weeks it can be extremely tough digging out humdinger deal jackanories. They are a bit like buses - you wait for ages and then suddenly three come along in one go...