Top deals of the day - bids, mergers and acquisitions

By VCPOST Staff Reporter

Nov 27, 2013 06:26 PM EST

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

CVS Caremark Corp said it was buying Coram LLC, Apria Healthcare Group Inc's specialty infusion services and enteral nutrition business unit, for $2.1 billion. 

Teck Resources Ltd, Newmont Mining Corp, private equity firm Blackstone Group LP and a firm led by the former head of Barrick Gold are working together on a bid for Glencore Xstrata's Las Bambas copper mine in Peru, according to several people familiar with the matter. 

Industrial conglomerate Danaher Corp  and private equity firm Blackstone Group LP are pursuing a joint bid for chemicals manufacturer Ashland Inc's water technologies unit, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, in a deal that could top $1.5 billion. 

Orange has agreed to sell its Dominican Republic business to Luxembourg-based cable and telecommunications company Altice for $1.4 billion as France's largest telecom operator seeks to cut debt. 

Deutsche Bank is in exclusive talks with private equity firm Permira to sell the loss-making part of its wealth management business in the UK, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the negotiations. 

Activist investor Carl Icahn will sell all his shares in Take-Two Interactive Software Inc back to the videogame company, netting a fat return on his investment in the "Grand Theft Auto" publisher. 

Spanish bank Sabadell is negotiating the sale of a portfolio of loans with a face value of 650 million euros ($881 million) in a deal in which it expects to earn 45 million euros, the bank said. 

Poland may sell another chunk of real estate group PHN next year, Deputy Treasury Minister Pawel Tamborski said, confirming a Reuters report that the planned sale might be delayed from 2013. 

Germany's competition regulator said it had started an in-depth probe into Fresenius SE's plans to buy most of Rhoen-Klinikum's hospitals. 

Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena would be nationalised without a capital injection and disappear from its base in Siena, bank executives said in an attempt to overcome local opposition to its planned rights issue. 

Royal Bank of Scotland said it sold its remaining stake of about 20 percent in WorldPay to the payment processing firm's majority shareholders, private equity firms Advent International and Bain Capital. 

Indonesia has agreed to pay a Japanese consortium $557 million for their share of Southeast Asia's only aluminium smelter, a government official said, avoiding arbitration that threatened to hurt relations between the two countries. Japanese shareholders including Sumitomo Chemicals Corp and Mitsubishi Corp handed control of Sumatra-based PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) to the Indonesian government on Nov. 1 even though they had been unable to end a months-long dispute over the price. 

Panasonic Corp will sell its three main chip plants in Japan to Israel's TowerJazz, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, as the electronics giant wraps up a multi-billion-dollar restructuring drive. 

Solid-state hard drive maker OCZ Technology Group Inc said it had received an offer from Toshiba Corp to buy the company in a planned bankruptcy proceeding. 

Ireland has not received any acceptable bids for the retail unit of state-owned utility Bord Gais despite significant interest, the energy ministry said.Bord Gais announced in May that it had started the sale process for its energy unit, which sources said they expected to fetch about 1.5 billion euros. 

South African drug maker Adcock Ingram Holdings Ltd said a $1.2 billion takeover by Chile's CFR Pharmaceuticals SA, which is opposed by its biggest shareholder, was vital to its long-term survival. 

French state-controlled utility EDF said it raised about 262 million euros ($355 million) by selling its entire 4.01 percent stake in water and waste group Veolia Environnement. 

French state-controlled utility EDF said it had sold its 49 percent stake in Slovak energy group Stredoslovenská Energetika to Czech energy company EPH. EDF said the transaction valued the stake at approximately 400 million euros ($543 million). The companies had agreed on the sale in May. 

A group of Gulf investors led by Fajr Capital are in talks to buy Dubai-based oil services firm NPS Energy for up to $700 million, three sources aware of the matter said. 

Norwegian holding firm Aker ASA purchased 16.44 million shares or 6 percent of oil services firm Aker Solution ASA at a 16 percent premium, raising its stake to about 34 percent, it said on Tuesday. 

Murray Goulburn Co-operative Co Ltd appealed to takeover regulators to block a revised bid from Saputo Inc for Australia's oldest dairy maker, as it seeks time for its own offer to win approval from a competition watchdog. 

Generali said proceeds from a string of asset disposals will allow it to slash its debt and complete the acquisition of eastern European joint venture GPH next year as it continues to focus on its core insurance business. 

First-round bids are due on Dec. 6 for Transpacific Industries Group Ltd's New Zealand waste management unit, which is attracting interest from international private equity firms and trade bidders, Basis Point reported. 

Britain's Oxford Instruments said it had made a firm offer to buy scientific camera maker Andor Technology for about 159 million pounds ($257 million), the same price it indicated it would be willing to pay earlier this month. 

Archer Daniels Midland Co will invest A$200 million in agricultural infrastructure should it win approval for its A$2.8 billion ($2.56 billion) takeover of Australia's GrainCorp, the U.S. agribusiness said, in a move seen as a sweetener for farmers ahead of a regulatory deadline. 

A judge on Wednesday approved a settlement resolving U.S. regulators' opposition to a merger between AMR Corp and US Airways Group Inc, allowing AMR, the bankrupt parent of American Airlines, to soon close on a tie-up that will create the world's largest carrier. 

The government of South Korea has upsized the sale of part of its $4.3 billion stake in state-owned lender Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) to about $250 million, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters. 

British engineer Amec is eyeing a takeover of U.S.-listed engineering company Foster Wheeler AG in a potential deal that could create a 5 billion pound ($8 billion) energy services group, The Times reported on Wednesday, citing sources. 

Bank Zachodni WBK said on Wednesday it is to pay 2.16 billion zlotys ($697 million) in shares for a 60 percent stake in Santander Consumer Bank. 

Saint-Gobain said it planned 4 billion euros ($5.42 billion) of acquisitions by 2018 as part of its strategy to focus on high-growth, high-margin products. 

China's Shuanghui International Holdings plans to launch a counterbid for Spanish meat processor Campofrio, newspaper El Mundo said on Wednesday, citing sources close to a major financing deal for the Chinese group. Campofrio, a household name in Spain whose products include hot dogs and canned ham, is the target of a 6.8 euros-per-share takeover offer from Mexican frozen food company Sigma Alimentos, valuing the company at 695 million euros ($943 million). 

Grid operators Fingrid and Elering said they had agreed to buy Estlink-1, a 350-megawatt subsea connection between Finland and Estonia, from a group of power producers for 77.6 million euros ($105.2 million). 

Sinopec, China's biggest oil refiner, is in talks with Apache Corp to buy a stake in the Kitimat LNG export project on Canada's Pacific coast, according to an industry executive with direct knowledge of the matter.  

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