Is Odey still bearish or turning bullish - part 2

Ping! An email arrives with the latest Odey Asset Management investor letter.

Whilst the fund's overall performance - down about 31pc since the beginning of the year to the middle of April - made headlines a couple of weeks ago in the venerable Financial Times, I can provide a bit of colour about where the old buffer has taken a hit in his flagship Odey European Fund.

Brookfield Infrastructure Partners said to have hired bankers to sell International Energy Group

Apologies for the delayed posting Betavillers - I've got a bit of sore head as I was out hobnobbing with the great and the good of the British business world last night at a brilliant party.

Anyway, I'm sure you can read about that over the weekend. Back in the real world (or perhaps I should say Betaville world) I can "exclusively reveal" that I stumbled across this rather interesting little jackanory a few days ago.

Krafty 3G / Coincidence - part 3

Finally, SAB Miller announces a £70 billion plus recommended offer from Anheuser-Busch Inbev and confirms what I have been banging on about since the beginning of the year: that 2015 is the year ABI and 3G plan to bid for the FTSE 100 beer company. And in case you don't recall, here are links to some of my "exclusive" articles on the topic:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2953714/Burger-King-Brazilians-mull-audacious-75bn-bid-Foster-s-owner-SABMiller.html

Bank rows - part 3

Regular readers of this blog know that I like to hang around some of London's courts as it's a great place to pick up tales about dusts ups that involve City characters, institutions and dealmakers.

And one court that has proved to be a particularly fertile environment for City hacks is Southwark Crown Court. In fact, there has rarely been a day over the last couple of months that the allegations being heard at Southwark haven't featured in British national newspapers.

When "old" news becomes new news... - part 2

Readers probably don't recall that almost exactly a year ago I wrote this article:

http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/when-old-news-becomes-new-news.html

One of the key points of last year's piece was to highlight that APR Energy, the power generator company, had hired Barclays to carry out a "strategic review" following interest from several private firms despite "people familiar with the matter" claiming Barclays wasn't "currently" working with the company etc etc etc.

Bank rows

Are Britain's banks past the the worst of their fines and punishments following the financial crisis?

Well, it would appear so, according to Dutch information provider Wolters Kluwer.

The Great Escape

The chaps over at McQueen, an advisory boutique set up by a bunch of former HSBC bankers, have been bought by American rivals Houlihan Lokey.

I always worry when I see one of the City's boutique corporate finance firms sell to a US predator Why? Because it could be a sign that a bull market is somewhere near its peak.

RARE ALERT: Barclays could name CFO as new boss

Most of the London market is likely to be transfixed on the Budget.

However, over here in Betavilleland we like to get on with teasing out corporate stories while the Government overloads the financial reporting community with a ton of news.

That email

Ping! An email arrives from a reader interested in the piece I wrote a couple of weeks ago about Deutsche Bank's $2.5 billion fine over interest rate manipulation. (Click on the link to remind yourself of the story - http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/that-meeting.html)

I suspect this reader has a vested interest in the situation. Still, his email posits some valid questions, so I have pasted the main body below:

Village gossip - Amanda Staveley to pick up multi-million pound fee from Qatar's £1.4 billion Maybourne purchase

It never ceases to amaze me what you can learn from hanging out in hotel lobbies.

I have just picked up that PCP Capital Partners - the corporate finance firm set up by dealmaker Amanda Staveley - is in line for a multi-million pound cash windfall after advising the Qatar-backed Constellation Hotels on the £1.4 billion purchase of Claridges, the Connaught and the Berkeley.

That meeting

Looking over last week's coverage of Deutsche Bank's $2.5 billion fine for fixing the Libor rate it struck me little has been made of fact that interest rate manipulation was being discussed at a British Bankers Association board meeting all the way back in 2008.

Indeed, tucked away at the back of the Financial Conduct Authority's press release is a rather interesting nugget:

When "old" news becomes new news...

Hat tip to the Bloomberg M&A reporting team for smoking out Glencore's approach to Rio Tinto about a $160 billion merger.

For anybody who hasn't been following closely, Bloomberg revealed yesterday that a few weeks ago mining giant Glencore approached Chinalco, one of Rio Tinto's largest shareholders, to gauge the state-backed company's interest in whether it would like to see to two mining groups combine.

Predator circles Sweett Group

Here is a very interesting tale about one of Britain’s oldest quantity surveyors. I hear Sweett Group, formerly known as Cyril Sweett, has attracted a suitor.

Well-placed sources tell me WSP, which is now owned by Canada’s Genivar Inc, has been sniffing around Sweett Group over the last six months or so.