Deals of The Day

By Staff Reporter

Jun 10, 2013 08:31 PM EDT

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

Google Inc is finalizing a deal to acquire online mapping company Waze for $1.3 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter. 

AstraZeneca Plc is to buy U.S. respiratory drug specialist Pearl Therapeutics for up to $1.15 billion as Britain's second biggest drugmaker steps up a drive to rebuild its product pipeline via deal-making. 

U.S. insurer Travelers Co Inc said it would buy Dominion of Canada General Insurance Co from E-L Financial Co Ltd for about $1.1 billion to boost its presence in Canada. 
Community bank Union First Market Bankshares Corp said it would buy smaller rival StellarOne Corp for about $445 million in stock. StellarOne shareholders will receive 0.9739 shares of Union First, or $19.50, for each share held. This represents a premium of about 20 percent to StellarOne's Friday closing price. 

Greece failed to attract any buyers for its natural gas company DEPA by Monday's deadline for binding bids, in a major setback to the country's ambitious privatisation program.

Brazil's JBS SA will acquire Marfrig Alimentos SA's local poultry and pork unit for $2.75 billion in assumed debt, further extending its reach beyond its core beef business in a deal that throws a lifeline to its financially strapped rival. 

Dish Network Corp said it was still doing due diligence on Sprint Nextel Corp, for which it made an unsolicited $25 billion offer in April. 

British finance minister George Osborne will launch the early sale to the public of shares in bailed-out lender Lloyds Banking Group Plc, the Sunday Times reported without citing sources. Osborne will announce the sale of the state's 39 percent stake in Lloyds, which could raise up to 17 billion pounds ($26 billion), during his annual policy speech to London's business community at Mansion House on June 19, the Sunday Times said. 

The Canadian-led consortium trying to buy Britain's Severn Trent PLC threatened to walk away after its third approach was rejected, prompting two of the water utility's major shareholders to urge a return to talks. The water utility had previously said the $8.2 billion proposal failed to reflect the long-term value and future potential of the company. 

Ireland's Elanhas attracted the interest of a number of mid-sized drug companies and a cash offer of $15.50 per share could be enough to secure its support for a bid, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said.

Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp said it will cut Gavilon's energy business out of its planned takeover of the U.S. commodity merchant, reducing the size of the transaction to $2.6 billion plus debt. 

Indian state company ONGC withdrew a statement issued saying it and Oil India Ltd had signed an agreement to buy a 10 percent stake in a Mozambique gas field from India's Videocon Group for $2.48 billion. 

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc is interested in buying assets that Italian insurer Unipol Assicurazioni SpA must sell as part of a merger with peer Fondiaria-SAI SpA, business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said on Saturday. Unipol has been forced by Italy's anti-trust authority to sell portfolio assets with premiums totaling around 1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion) as part of its rescue of the Fondiaria-SAI group. 

Micron Technologies Inc's planned acquisition of bankrupt Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc appeared to move closer to completion on Friday after a key deadline passed without a legal challenge. The proposed sale to Micron is for 200 billion yen (about $2.1 billion), which will create the world's second-largest maker of memory chips. 
The Norwegian government wants permission from parliament to increase or decrease its stake in fish farmer Cermaq, in order to better protect the value of its current investment, it said on Monday. Marine Harvest, the world's top fish farmer, has filed a hostile bid for Cermaq. 

Private equity group Doughty Hanson has sold cinema operator Vue Entertainment to OMERS Private Equity and Alberta Investment Management Corp for 935 million pounds ($1.45 billion), more than double its initial investment, cashing in on an industry where new technologies like 3D movies have helped it to thrive in recession. 

KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp said it struck a deal to buy Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging Inc for $1.03 billion in cash, in a move to bulk up its production of containerboard used in making cardboard boxes. 

IHS Inc said on Sunday that it struck a deal to buy privately held R.L. Polk & Co, the owner of used-car history provider Carfax and a leading provider of auto industry data. Industry experts had told Reuters in March that the business could attract bids of about $1 billion. 

Italian defence group Finmeccanica SpA and private equity fund Cinven Ltd will get at least five offers for satellite propulsion system unit Avio Spazio, business daily Il Sole 24 Ore said on Sunday. Avio Spazio, which is about 81 percent-owned by Cinven and 14.3 percent by Finmeccanica, is estimated to be worth 300-400 million euros, Il Sole said. 
Bank Al Khair, a Bahrain-based investment bank, expects its potential merger with local player Khaleeji Commercial Bank BSC to help provide it with retail banking exposure and more stable revenues, a top executive said. A merger would create an entity with paid-up capital of about $500 million and assets in the range of $600 million to $1 billion, Jonathan Holley, Bank Al Khair's acting chief executive and head of investment banking, said in an interview on Sunday. 

Luigi Zunino, the founder of Italian real estate company Risanamento, said he would pay 0.25 euros a share to buy out the banks that propped up the struggling company via a debt-for-equity deal in 2009, enabling them to exit. The company, which also owns a portfolio of top-bracket buildings in France, had net debt of 1.9 billion euros ($2.5 billion) at the end of 2012. It posted a net loss of 113 million euros in 2012. 

Malaysian offshore oil services firm Yinson Holdings Bhd is bidding $170 million for Norwegian shipping firm Fred Olsen Production ASA and has secured a majority of the shares in the company, the firms said on Monday.

Finnish liquor maker Altia has agreed to buy cognac house Larsen S.A. and its brand from Remy Cointreau SA for around 40 million euros ($53 million) to boost growth. 
French investment company Wendel said it would sell its remaining 5.4 percent stake in electrical-equipment company Legrand on the market. 

Tokyo's Tiffany Building is up for sale with an asking price of at least 25 billion yen ($256.71 million) as owner Asia Pacific Land bets on a recovery in property prices, people with direct knowledge of the process said. The 10-story building, which houses the flagship store of jewelers Tiffany & Co., is located in the center of the upmarket Ginza area, one of the most luxurious shopping districts in the world.

The sale by Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp of about half its stake in UK lender Barclays Plc does not mean other major shareholders are likely to follow suit, Barclays Chairman David Walker said.

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