Betaville

Bears start mauling Hiscox - Part 3

One of Betaville's favourite business commentators today follows the theme I laid out yesterday about Hiscox but probably in a more eloquent style than myself.

I am off course referring to Alistair "acerbic" Osborne, a former boss and colleague from my days at The Daily Telegraph City desk, and his piece in today's The Times about Hiscox's refusal to pay out claims to small and medium-sized businesses. I have pasted the link below:..

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Phaldrick scoops award for scoop...

A hearty congratulations goes out to former colleague Philip Aldrick, economics editor at The Times. Today he won the the Business and Finance Journalist of the Year award from the Society of Editors.

I have worked across the business desks of 'Fleet Street' for a quite a while and I couldn't think of a more diligent but understated journalist as Phil Aldrick, who I used to work alongside at The Daily Telegraph several years ago...

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Deals, deals, deals...in a bear market - Part 3

Clearly, there are more important things happening in the world at the moment than mergers & acquisitions.

In fact, the global crisis has effectively completely upended the dealmaking market, with Bloomberg reporting that many M&A bankers are trying to reinvent themselves as restructuring advisers...

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The Genteel Hustler... - Part 3

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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Fantasy M&A from the Telegraph: Apple to buy Land Rover, Melrose to buy Unilever and ....

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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Hedge Fund Intelligence-owner said to weigh £100 million sale - sources

Here is a story thay may resonate with some Betaville's core readers: Pageant Media, which owns HedgeFund Intelligence, is working with advisers on "strategic options".

Sources close to the situation said Pageant Media, which is controlled by entrepreneur Charles Kerr, is working with advisers from corporate finance firm Livingstone (now part of NM Rothschild), a move that could lead to an eventual sale of the business...

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Scoop confirmed for Betaville's old chums...

Take a bow Simon Duke, a former colleague from Betaville's jobbing freelancing days on The Sunday Times business section, and Katherine Griffiths, who I worked with on The Daily Telegraph some time ago, of The Times...

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More M&A on the way in Britain post Brexit deal, top fund manager tells the Telegraph

Tucked away in the back of the business section of my old employer - The Daily Telegraph - are some rather interesting comments from Gervais Williams, the respected fund manager, about the prospect of a pick up in dealmaking.

Williams, who runs the Diverse Income invesmtent trust - told Richard Evans, a rather nice former ex-colleague who writes the Questor column- that London-listed companies are at "unusually attractive valuations"...

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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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Former business editor turned PR man writes something interesting about activists...

Most hacks on national newspapers are bombarded by public relations-driven research on daily basis. Today, for example, I count around 20 of these type of emails in my inbox. And I'm just a jobbing freelancer and editor of a one man band website. Just imagine how many a staff journalist receives on a national newspaper...

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Quelle Surprise: Mike Ashley buys House of Fraser...

The Kleinmanator of Sky News is claiming he had the scoop about Mike Ashley buying House of Fraser out of administration. I guess that may be a valid claim amid his minute by minute scoopage (er, or is it coverage?) of the fast moving situation...

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Revealed: Top City PR firm Instinctif Partners said to be on the block - sources

Financial public relations firms are providing City hacks with a flurry of decent stories at the moment - and not just about the clients they represent.

The latest tale is about Instinctif Partners, where another one of Betaville's former bosses from The Daily Telegraph now works...

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Credit Suisse hires Telegraph Media Group's business supremo...

The journo/PR world has been trying to work out where James Quinn, head of the business section at my former employer The Daily Telegraph, was heading off to since he announced his departure on Twitter a couple of weeks ago.

Well, Betaville can reveal James Quinn - a jolly nice chap and former colleague during my time at the venerable newspaper - is joining Credit Suisse...

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Timing...

Looking over today's coverage of the Provident Financial fiasco on the front pages of the UK business sections I was reminded of a piece written by my esteemed former boss - Richard, the "Fletch", Fletcher - in The Daily Telegraph six years ago. ..

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Those Ocado bid rumours...

I see almost all of the business sections of the quality British newspapers ran with the Amazon-for-Ocado bid rumour today, with some publications even dedicating a whole page lead to the takeover speculation.

No surprises, there, I suppose. Amazon's sensational $13.7 billion move on Whole Foods in the US late last week has got tongues wagging in the Square Mile about how the American online retail giant plans to take on the British grocery market...

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Mediya Ruddy...

The Guardian has just announced that Graham Ruddick, a former colleague during our time at The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, has been made the newspaper's Media Editor. Here is the link:

https://www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-office/2017/may/04/graham-ruddick-announced-as-guardians-media-editor..

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Marlow on UK M&A

Ben Marlow, a former colleague from a long time ago and now a big cheese at The Daily Telegraph, wrote this opinion piece - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/21/botched-bid-unilever-shows-rules-game-have-changed-foreign-takeovers/ - on the changing nature of dealmaking in Britain...

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Saturday review

Clearly today's newspapers are dominated by you know who.

However, there was one story in The Daily Telegraph's business section that caught my eye: Ashley Armstrong's piece on how Ranjit Boparan, the entrepreneur known as "The Chicken King", has received a takeover approach for Party Ring, the maker of Fox's Biscuits, from a mystery suitor...

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RARE ALERT: HM Treasury said to be weighing major changes to property tax; may even abolish stamp duty - part 3

I see my former employer, The Daily Telegraph, has picked up on a theme little old Betaville has been writing about for the last month or so. Today, the venerable newspaper splashed the main book on a campaigning piece - dubbed 'Stamp duty' - advocating major changes to the tax (for readers outside of the UK you have to pay stamp duty when you purchase a property). Here is a link to the The Daily Telegraph's splash story:..

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2016 That meeting - part 2

Today's business splash in The Times is rather intriguing.

Harry Wilson - City editor at The Times and a former colleague from time at The Daily Telegraph - reveals that Eric Daniels, former chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, was told about Libor rigging at a BBA meeting in 2008...

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