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 ben@betaville.co.uk. 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.
I hear one of the largest flotations in Europe is getting close to lift off.
ING, which was bailed out by the Dutch government after the financial crisis, confirmed earlier this year it has already appointed JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and, funnily enough, ING on a potential listing of its insurance business...
Gary Parkinson, stockmarket correspondent at The Times, has produced another excellent 'Trade Secrets' column this morning.
It's a piece that combines incredible writing with profound understanding of how the City's dealmaking machine works.
The column is really worth a read. Here is the link: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists/article4027906.ece..
A Finnish company called Metso has caught my eye.
Metso shares were up 5pc yesterday and are up another 1.5pc today (readers should be aware the stock crashed at the beginning of the year).
There has been vague talk doing the rounds all week that there is "something going on" with Metso
- which supplies technology to resources companies - although none of my sources seem to know precisely what...
Mr Wilson also said the turnaround at the FTSE 100 insurer is 'intensifying'...
What is it with top hedge fund managers and beautiful properties in Belsize Park?
I hear from knowledgeable sources this lovely mansion - http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-21869253.html - is being sold by one of London's most successful hedgies of the noughties credit boom.
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Hat tip to the boys over at FT Alphaville for breaking the Reynolds American bid for Lorrilard story on Markets Live this morning...
Here is an interesting little story about a company backed by the Guardian Media Group.
I hear Top Right Group's acquisition of US fashion forecaster Stylesight is now being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
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I have just managed to obtain John Roberts's business card thanks to a loyal Betaville reader.
Mr Roberts is the chief executive AO.com and just made a cool £86m from the float of his online white goods retailer (good for him, by the way).
It's not a big, clear photo but it's an image nonetheless.
Here you go:
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Interesting to see the Financial Times report today that China Mobile may want to buy stakes in European telecoms companies. See the link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1ffe8c84-9e20-11e3-95fe-00144feab7de.html#axzz2uLMyQZUz..
There is a peculiar theory (to be clear, this is just a rumour and not a genuine scoop like some of my previous posts) doing the rounds in the market. It goes something like this: Vodafone is interested in buying French telecoms company SFR back from Vivendi.
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Can loyal Betaville readers get hold of, or take a picture of, the business card of John Roberts, the chief executive of AO.com?
AO.com is the appliances business that is due to imminently list on the London market with a valuation of almost £1.5bn.
I am told Mr Roberts's business card is rather amusing. If you do come across it, please email to betaville1@gmail.com...
Fantastic news! Dixons and Carphone Warehouse have confirmed my scoop from earlier this morning about their merger talks on the regulatory news service.
I have pasted the most important parts of the announcement below:..
Chris Hohn, the founder of The Children's Investment Fund, has denied he is the secretive hedge fund manager who has recently been snapping up beautiful properties in Belsize Park and Primrose Hill.
Some of my sources claimed Mr Hohn, who is well-known in the City for his aggressive style of shareholder activism, was behind the purchase of the Belsize Park property (see the picture below) in yesterday's Betaville post...
The mysterious tale involving the hedgie and the £20m plus Primrose Hill mansion continues.
Some of my sources are sure the secretive hedge fund manager has recently bought another beautiful property in Belsize Park - just round the corner from Primrose Hill pile.
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Looks like he/she is doing some serious renovation work.
Indeed, multi-million pound renovations, such as sticking an olympic size swimming pool on a second lower ground floor underneath your brand new mansion seems to be the vogue thing to do nowadays. Whether that's the plan with this lovely house remains to be seen...
Gary Parkinson's Trading Secrets column in today's The Times is highly amusing - here is a link to it in case you haven't had a chance to read it.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/columnists/article4007347.ece..
Bloggers have set the agenda for the this weekend's newspapers.
The business sections of both The Times and The Sunday Times splashed on Betaville's Friday afternoon scoop about the billionaire Ruia brothers making an £900m offer for FTSE 250-listed Essar Energy, which was later confirmed on the regulatory news service...
Essar Global, a vehicle controlled by the Ruia brothers, has confirmed my story about a potential offer for Essar Energy. I have pasted the release below:
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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].