Legal & General hires Campbell Lutyens to sell LGV Capital portfolio; deal close to completion

It sounds like FTSE 100 insurer Legal & General is on the verge of selling its private equity arm and stakes in several well-known retail outfits, such as outdoor clothing retailer Snow + Rock and bar chain Tiger Tiger.

Two years ago, Legal & General shocked the private equity market when it emerged the insurer decided it was not going to provide any more funding to LGV Capital, which was founded in 1986 and is one of Britain's oldest private equity firms. Here is a link to an article in The Sunday Times on the topic:

RBS - it never rains but it pours...

It would appear things tend to all go wrong at once for taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland.

This morning James Hurley, an old Telegraph colleague, revealed on the front page of the business section in The Times that RBS was under pressure to strip companies of their assets to improve its balance sheet. Here is a link to James's piece:

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.

Hotel Buzz - part 3

A friendly analyst has got in touch with his view on what the likely combinations are from the next round of consolidation in the hotel sector. I will list them below - to be clear, this is just his speculation...

1. Accor combining with either Marriott International or Whitbread

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:

Hotel buzz - part 2

So, it would appear little old Betaville made the right call running the story about Starwood Hotels, Senator and InterContinental Hotels a couple of weeks ago.

The BP political conundrum

There are some brilliant comment columns in today's British newspapers on the UK government's decision to tell BP it's not too keen on the idea of a foreign bidder gobbling up the FTSE 100 oil producer. 

Both Alistair Osborne of The Times and Nils Pratley of The Guardian make some good points in their respective opinion pieces on David Cameron's move whilst Alistair's colleagues suggest in a news article that Exxon Mobil is the most likely acquirer of BP.

Finally - Kier announces takeover of Mouchel

I'm glad to see that Kier Group has finally announced the £265 million takeover of Mouchel. Readers might recall that I broke the story late last year on Tip TV and Betaville - here is a link http://betaville123.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/banks-edge-closer-to-400-million.html - that Kier Group was in talks to buy Mouchel for a decent chunk of change.

Kier is funding the deal with a £340 million equity capital fundraising.

Back on Tip TV talking about Quindell, BP, BioMarin and Sky

Zak invited back onto Tip TV today. Here is a link to today's session:

http://www.tiptv.co.uk/archives/weekly-ma-update/

Marlow cooks up another massive drugs deal

Ben Marlow's comment column in today's The Daily Telegraph caught my eye this morning. Not only is it a well written piece of prose but it also contains a story I myself had been chasing for the last month or so.

Ben's comment column - click on the link http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/11564744/If-its-Astra-bid-was-crazy-is-Pfizer-plotting-something-even-more-bonkers.html - appears to suggest US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is plotting a multi-billion bid for GlaxoSmithKline.

A Stemcor snippet - mystery US trade buyer swoops on steel trader - part 2

Some of my lending sources have got back in touch regarding the Stemcor story I wrote earlier this week.

Word is this "mystery US trade buyer" (see my previous post) has offered more for Stemcor's UK steel trading operations than what Apollo, the US vulture fund, is proposing as part of a debt-for-equity swap.

A newspaper review on a Wednesday

There are plenty of great market tales knocking about in the mainstream press today.

I particularly enjoyed Ben Martin's main story in his market report in The Daily Telegraph. IMI's shares were volatile - gaining 5pc - during yesterday's trading session and Ben found out why: a trader mis-interpreted a Bloomberg story, thinking IMI had received a takeover a bid when in fact the newswire was referring to an Isreael-based company with the same abbreviated name.

A Stemcor snippet - mystery US trade buyer swoops on steel trader

I picked up an interesting nugget on the Stemcor situation scurrying around in the undergrowth this afternoon.

For readers that don't recall, Stemcor - one of Britain's largest privately-owned companies - is in a tough situation following a financial restructuring.

Back on Tip TV talking about Royal Dutch Shell, BG Group, Anadarko, Pharma deals and Quindell

It's been a while since I was invited on Tip TV. Today Moose - aka Nick Batsford - very kindly asked me to come back onto the show. Here is a link to today's clip:

http://www.tiptv.co.uk/archives/update-on-the-latest-in-the-ma-market/

A weekend review

There were plenty of interesting business stories in the weekend newspapers this weekend but the ones that caught my eye were the tales involving Quindell, the controversial AIM-listed business.

Ben Martin, market reporter over at The Daily Telegraph, did well to get some quotes out of Robert Terry, the former chairman and founder of the business, about his plans for Daniel Stewart, the stockbroker. Here is a link to Ben's piece:

Hotel buzz

Here is an interesting speculative piece from Bloomberg on Starwood Hotels:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-16/starwood-hotels-is-giving-activists-reason-to-check-in-real-m-a

Now this is a surprise - Rob Terry buys massive stake in Daniel Stewart - part 3

Wow - Daniel Stewart has just released a statement on the Regulatory News Service this evening telling the market Rob Terry, the founder and former chairman of Quindell, has asked the Financial Conduct Authority for permission to increase his stake in the stockbroker to above 10pc.

I have a theory about what might be going on here but for the moment I will keep it to myself.

Burmese business

Ping - an email arrives with the headline: "in the land of the internet virgins".

Now, before readers start to get the wrong idea let me explain this email contains one of the first bits of equity research on a company based in Myanmar, which has been emerging from five decades of military dictatorship.

Quelle surprise: Agnellis launch multi-billion dollar insurance/reinsurance takeover deal

It would appear Exor - the Agnelli family trust - has bitten the bullet and moved on from buying a 20pc stake in Swiss Re.

Exor - controlled by chairman and CEO John Elkann - has just announced it is launching a $6.4 billion all cash takeover offer for US-listed insurance and reinsurance company PartnerRe, trumping a previous $11 billion merger with Axis Capital. Here is a link to the Exor press release:

Mega deals are back in vogue ... and so are the rows with British banks over mis-selling and Libor - part 2

I have a little update to my story last week on the ongoing row between Guardian Care Homes and Lloyds Banking Group. In case you don't recall, here is a link to last week's story:

http://betaville123.blogspot.com.es/2015/04/mega-deals-are-back-in-vogueand-so-are.html