Sanofi said to weigh alternative deals to Medivation; eyes BioMarin Pharmaceutical - sources

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi is working on a back up plan in case it fails to win its $9.3 billion hostile pursuit of US-listed Medivation.

Top sources have told me the French pharmaceutical giant has begun looking at US-based rare disease specialist BioMarin Pharmaceutical as a potential alternative takeover deal after growing frustrated in its pursuit of Medivation, which has so far resisted the French company's advances.

Goldman Sachs tips Sky, Cairn Energy and Zealand Pharma as takeover candidates

I never quite know what to make of a equity research teams' M&A predictions.

Why? Well, investment bank's equity research teams are supposed to have "Chinese walls" but you would have thought it's unlikely a top investment bank would actually let its own equity research analysts predict a deal that its M&A advisory bankers are actually working on.

Sandwiches

I see Pret a Manger - the up-market sandwich shop favoured by young bankers, hedge fund analysts and lawyers - has been basking in the glory of another set of strong results, with a significant amount of press coverage today. Here a few links:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1f48d7a6-0613-11e6-9b51-0fb5e65703ce.html#axzz46NTfCqyl

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/19/pret-a-manger-sales-rise-as-vegetarian-range-
pleases-foodies

Praag-matic

Here's a curiosity - a quick look at the LSE / Deutsche Borse merger announcement shows that Lucas Van Praag has landed a rather juicy mandate as a PR advisor to the LSE on the £20 billion plus exchange tie-up.

I remember the ultra smooth Van Praag from the days when he was a chief spinmeister at Goldman Sachs. He had a tough job, especially after Rolling Stone magazine dubbed the investment bank as a giant "vampire squid". He would also frustrate some of my ex-colleagues something rotten. Nowadays, though, it would appear he runs a New York-based PR firm called Fitzroy Communications.

Stryker returns?

The Stryker for Smith & Nephew rumour has returned roughly a year after Bloomberg was putting it about the market.

This time, though, the tale is being aired by The Street / Thestreetinsider.com (see below).

Coincidence? - part 6

Apologies for the delayed post Betavillers - I have been out and about all day.

Anyway, here is a little snippet on the SAB Miller situation - apparently the equity research department of investment bank Goldman Sachs, recently appointed as adviser to the FTSE 100 company, was today "restricted" on the Molson Coors Brewing Company, which has joint venture with SAB Miller in the US.

SAB Miller said to have formally appointed Goldman Sachs as defence adviser; speculation in talks with Diageo

Here is a juicy jackanory to set your pulses racing on a Monday morning.

I hear from top sources that SAB Miller has formally appointed heavyweight investment bankers from Goldman Sachs as defence advisers alongside uber grandee dealmakers Simon Robey and Simon Warshaw, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Cazenove.

Fosun said to have approached Alleghany about buying division/s; Swiss Re also believed to be circling US insurance group - part 2

I see The Insurance Insider is backing up one of my tales from a couple of weeks ago.

Readers might recall I wrote that Chinese group Fosun and insurance giant Swiss Re had both been sniffing around Alleghany after the US group hired Goldman Sachs to advise on strategic options. Here is a link to that piece: http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/fosun-said-to-have-approached-alleghany.html

de-RARED: Microsoft said to be in the early stages of examining multi-billion dollar takeover bid for BlackBerry - part 3

I have decided to "de-RARE" or rather remove the RARE tag from my Microsoft/BlackBerry story/series after speaking to a few more decent sources about the tale.

Don't, however, get too excited. I still believe Microsoft is in the "early stages" of looking at BlackBerry with its bankers at Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.

CSR appoints new adviser following Microchip approach

Here's an interesting snippet on the CSR takeover situation. I understand CSR has brought on board Goldman Sachs as a financial adviser alongside bankers from JP Morgan Cazenove.

For readers that don't recall, CSR admitted last week that it had received a takeover approach from Microchip Technology but had rejected the US company's offer because the offer was too low. Here is a link to CSR's announcement: http://www.investegate.co.uk/csr-plc--csr-/rns/csr-confirms-approach-from-microchip-technology/201408280947112254Q/

Update to my what's missing from AbbVie's £27 billion takeover bid for Shire story?

The odds on Lazard turning up as an adviser to a bidder for Shire appear to be improving after it emerged the FTSE-100 listed company has appointed Goldman Sachs to its defence advisory team.

(This comment will only make sense if you read yesterday's Betaville piece: http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/whats-missing-from-abbvies-27-billion.html)

Sorrell (junior) back on the acquisition trail

I see Jonathan Sorrell, the son of WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell, is up to his old tricks again.

Some readers might not recall that Jonathan Sorrell used to work at Goldman Sachs as a corporate financier. In the latter stages of his investment banking career, he was responsible for running Petershill - an investment fund that was set up in 2007 by Goldman Sachs to buy stakes in booming hedge fund management companies.

Italian companies and their difficulty with the truth

Interesting to see Pirelli and Rosneft announce this morning the Russian gas giant has acquired a significant stake in the tyre group's holding company.