Top deals of the day - bids, mergers and acquisitions

By Editor

Nov 21, 2013 04:47 PM EST

The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported on Thursday.

The $35.1 billion tie-up of advertising groups Omnicom and Publicis will close, at the latest, by the first half of next year, the two groups said, pushing the date slightly further back than expected. 

Sources name the Carlyle Group LP and a combined group from Danaher Corp and Blackstone Group LP to have successfully advanced to the final stage of sale negotiations for J&J's diagnostics unit.

Spanish telecom group, Telefonica, announced on Thursday that it was open to talks about mergers, acquisitions and deals to share its networks in Mexico in order to streamline its operations.

Italy will sell stakes in public companies including oil and gas company Eni SpA to raise up to 12 billion euros ($16.16 billion) and help cut public debt, Prime Minister Enrico Letta said on Thursday. 

Hotel operator Hilton Worldwide Inc, owned by private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, will increase the size of its initial public offering to about $2.25 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it expected to sell its remaining shares of General Motors Co by the end of the year, a plan that may leave taxpayers with a shortfall of about $10 billion on the automaker's 2009 bailout. 

Activist investor Carl Icahn reported a 12.63 percent stake in medical device maker Hologic Inc, prompting the company to adopt a shareholder rights plan to protect itself from hostile takeovers. 

Deutsche Telekom will sell 70 percent of its classified advertising unit Scout24 for about 1.5 billion euros ($2.02 billion) to private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. 

Mexico's America Movil will likely keep its stake in Dutch phone group KPN following its failed takeover attempt, KPN's chief executive said. 

A consortium led by stainless steelmaker Aperam has raised its bid for Italian steel plant Terni that its competitor Outokumpu has to sell, a deal that would reshape the European stainless steel industry. 

French bank Credit Agricole said it would cut its 18.3 percent stake in investment fund Eurazeo by selling shares and convertible debt, bolstering its balance sheet to meet tougher capital demands. 

Moroccan insurance company Saham Finances has bought the second-largest insurance provider in the Angolan market, AG Angola Seguros SA, for an undisclosed amount. 

Private equity firms are circling UK mutual The Co-operative Group, hoping the food-to-funerals group will be forced to sell off parts of its business as it battles to contain a scandal engulfing its banking arm. 

British life group Resolution has entered talks to sell its Luxembourg-based Lombard division, which sells tax-efficient insurance products to ultra-rich clients. 

Private equity firm Bain Capital LLC has ended advanced talks with auto parts supplier TI Automotive Ltd over a possible buyout after failing to meet TI's price expectations of close to $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. 

French private equity firm PAI Partners confirmed it has sold a 9 percent stake in IT services firm Atos for 545 million euros ($732 million). 

Veteran emerging markets investor Mark Mobius said he had sold his fund's stake in Russia's TNK-BP Holding, walking away from his attempt to get a better buyout deal from the firm's new owner, NK Rosneft OAO. 

France's Safran SA is seen as a frontrunner to join Finmeccanica SpA in the Italian defense group's possible bid for a controlling stake in space propulsion company Avio Spazio, two sources close to the matter said on Thursday. 

Spain's Banco Popular Espanol SA has received preliminary offers from foreign investors for its property management unit Aliseda worth between 450 million euros ($605.9 million) and 600 million euros, three sources familiar with the situation said. 

DuPont said it would sell its glass-laminating products business to Japan's Kuraray Co Ltd for $543 million, as part of a plan to shift its focus to agriculture, alternative energy and specialty materials. 

Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman has teamed up with other investors to bid for German utility RWE AG's oil and gas unit Rwe DEA AG, three people familiar with the deal said. 

Santander SA is to sell its real estate management business Altamira to U.S. private equity group Apollo Global Management, likely to be the largest deal of its kind so far in Spain where the property market is starting to thaw. 

The European Commission has cleared Czech energy group EPH's acquisition of a 49 percent stake in Slovak electricity distributor Stredoslovenska Energetika (SSE) from France's EDF. 

Aeropostale Inc shareholder Crescendo Partners urged the company to sell itself, joining a list of investors going public with their frustration about the fading fortunes of the teen clothing retailer after three quarters of losses. 

Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz and Austrian investor Rene Benko may take a majority stake in German department store chain Karstadt, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday. 

Singapore Telecommunications Ltd has won conditional approval from regulators to acquire the entire ownership of OpenNet Pte Ltd, the company responsible for developing the city-state's broadband network. 

Commodities trader Vitol and Harvest Natural Resources have ended talks over the sale of Harvest's $137 million stake in a Gabon oil license, the U.S. oil company said this week without giving a reason. 

Hungarian oil and gas group MOL Magyar Olaj- es Gazipari Nyrt said on Thursday it would form a joint venture with Japan's JSR Corp to manufacture synthetic rubber from 2017. 

Credit Suisse said it was setting up a Swiss subsidiary by mid-2015, a move that would make it easier to break up the bank in the event of a severe crisis. 

Carmakers PSA Peugeot Citroen SA and Renault SA are about to end cross-shareholdings in two French plants that made up their last production alliance in the country, spokespeople for the companies said on Wednesday.  

© 2024 VCPOST, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics