The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S., Canadian and Asian companies were reported by 1000 GMT on Thursday:

 ** United Parcel Service Inc will launch its 5.2 billion euro ($6.6 billion) offer for Dutch rival TNT Express on Friday, the two companies said in a joint statement.

** U.S. buyout firm KKR & Co has put up for sale Bis Industries Ltd, valued at around $1.8 billion including debt, after talks to refinance the loans used to buy the Australian company stalled, sources familiar with the matter said.

** Mikhail Fridman, the Russian billionaire, has been meeting institutional investors in London to canvas support for his plan to buy half of BP's stake in TNK-BP, the Financial Times reported.

** Austrian energy group OMV has signed its first upstream joint venture in Abu Dhabi, agreeing to drill up to three appraisal wells for sour gas and condensate together with BASF's Wintershall in the Arab Emirate.

** British private equity fund Charterhouse Capital Partners has approached Italian biomedical group Sorin about a possible takeover, two sources close to the situation told Reuters.

** British engineer Invensys said on Thursday it had held preliminary discussions about a takeover with third parties including Emerson Electric but that the talks had come to an end with no offer.

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