VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Burger King Worldwide Inc. formed a joint venture with Bertrand Holding Co. and Naxicap Partners to open new stores in France in the first half of next year. Burger King returned to the country last year, opening three stores with Italian restaurant operator Autogrill.

France's Accor on Wednesday announced a plan to break up the hotel group in order to improve its performance and shareholder returns. Accor, the largest hotel group in Europe, owns luxury and upscale brands such as Sofitel and The Sebel.

China's mobile-based taxi booking service Kuaidadi confirmed it recently received a USD100 million investment from Alibaba, and has acquired a Shanghai-based taxi booking app called Dahuangfeng.

According to a research study by Dow Jones & Company, Ireland attracted the most venture capital funding per capita in the European region. The data showed that most Irish tech startups have fared well even during the economic recession.

The Indian Angel Network, the country's oldest and largest angel investor network, is hunting for investment opportunities in the UK and Singapore. IAN expects to announce its first UK deal during the first half of 2014, while it will begin its Singapore operations in the latter half of next year.

WePopp, a social planning app based in Paris, France, announced that it has secured EUR 130,000 from a small group of France-based angel investors. The newly injected funds will then be used to lure in more users to its system.

France's PSA Peugeot Citroen is looking into various ways of expanding its partnership with Chinese state-run car manufacturer Dongfeng Motor Corporation.

France's Credit Agricole said it will cut its holding in investment firm Eurazeo. The French bank will sell 3.2 million Eurazeo shares and zero-coupon convertibles equivalent to a maximun of 5.1 million shares.

European private equity group 21 Partners agreed to purchase French pharmaceutical manufacturing company Synerlab from premium independent private investment firm Ardian for an undisclosed amount.

France-based black car service provider LeCab raised USD6.8 million (EUR5 million) in a Series B funding round from undisclosed investors, to be used for the expansion of the company's service and manpower.

French elderly care company Korian bought rival Medica for EUR1.1 billion. The post-merger group would become the top nursing home operator in France, Germany and Belgium and second in Italy.

Brussels-based biotechnology company IBA concluded the sale of its drug discovery business unit to private equity firm Argos Soditic. IBA raised EUR25 million from the sale of Cisbio Bioassays.

British government-owned The Royal Bank of Scotland said it was looking to sell its retail investor and equity derivatives business. French bank BNP Paribas was identified as a front-runner to acquire the business unit.

Britain-based advertising group WPP denied a report from The Daily Mail's that the company is planning a takeover bid for US-based marketing group Interpublic (IPG).

The French government hoped to help fund new state investments and boost national economy by divesting 3.5% of its stake in jet engine maker Safran.