Nedbank Group, headed by Chief Executive Officer Mike Brown, said it plans to use its option to acquire a stake in Togo-based Ecobank Transnational Inc valued at more than USD 500 million.

Canada-based finance company FinanceIt raised USD13 million in a Series A funding round to be used for the expansion of its services to the United States.

Deutsche Telekom is nearing an agreement to sell 70% of its stake in German online-classifieds business Scout24 holding. It will be sold to private equity firm Hellman & Friedman in a deal that would value the business at EUR2 billion.

Massachussetts-based TV advertising platform Clypd raised USD7.2 million in Series A-1 funding from Atlas Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Boston Seed Capital, and angel investors John Battelle and Brightcove.

According to China's Ministry of Commerce, investments from the European Union increased the most in the world's second largest economy in the first 10 months of the year.

International consumer packaging company Chesapeake Services and packaging solutions firm Multi Packaging Solutions Inc entered into a definitive agreement to merge, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.

Singapore's CapitaMalls Asia Ltd. said it would buy a shopping mall located in Guangzhou, China for USD361 million. CapitaMalls Asia would purchase the said property from Chinese Greenland Real Estate.

The skyrocketing prices of properties in Singapore led to a corresponding property boom in Malaysia where overseas buyers are targeting to buy homes, according to a Bloomberg report.

Desert Hot Springs on Tuesday announced that it would run out of money in March due to higher-than-expected salary and pension costs. It said that it could join other California cities that filed for bankruptcy last year.

JPMorgan Chase & Co finalized a USD13-billion settlement with the US Justice Department to end a long legal fight over the bank's risky mortgage practices that helped pull down the country's economy.