Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digest

LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) - The following corporate finance-related stories involving U.S. and European companies were reported by media on Monday:

** British Chancellor Alistair Darling is set to admit for the first time that the government will not recoup the full cost of its bailout of the banking sector and that the bill could be as much as 60 billion pounds ($89 billion), the Financial Times reported.

** A potential shakeup of the board of American International Group Inc (AIG.N) has precipitated a delay in the filing of the insurer's annual proxy statement, the Wall Street Journal cited a person familiar with the matter as saying.

** The board of Candover (CDI.L) is set to meet to discuss bids its has received for the private equity group, which was put up for sale after suspending the 2.65 billion pound fund it generated in 2008 due to the downturn in the buyout industry, the Financial Times reported. Possible bidders include Coller Capital, which specialises in buying second-hand private equity assets, U.S. buyout fund Blackstone (BX.N), secondary investor Paul Capital and Goldman Sachs (GS.N), the report said.

** RTL AUDK.LU, the company behind Britain's Channel Five, is to consider offering a cash dowry to sweeten its bid to merge with Channel 4 and boost its share of an enlarged broadcaster, the Times reported.

The proposal of RTL, a pan-European group owned by Bertelsmann of Germany, has been conveyed to ministers, who are considering options for the future of the state-owned broadcaster. The size of its offer could exceed 100 million pounds, the report said.

** Publisher Independent News & Media (INME.I) has received preliminary approaches for its flagship title, the Independent newspaper, the Daily Telegraph cited sources close to the Independent as saying.

The Dublin-based group, which is attempting to tackle its 1.3 billion pound debt, is working with advisers Lazard on options, though without any formal mandate to sell the title, the Daily Telegraph said.

** NM Rothschild and PricewaterhouseCoopers have been hired by the Port of Dover, Europe's busiest ferry port, to review whether it should change its trust port status as it seeks to finance a 420 million pound expansion, the Daily Telegraph said.

Dover, along with seven other biggest trust ports, is classified as a public corporation for government accounting purposes. This month, the British government said it would work with Britain's major trust ports to explore "options for commercialisation of assets".

** The London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) will this week unveil the technology providers for Baikal, its pan-European "dark pool" unit, after rival Deutsche Boerse (DB1Gn.DE) said last week it planned to launch a pan-European trading platform that could include UK stocks in the fourth quarter, the Financial Times reported.

** Investors owning more than half the assets in Warren Lichtenstein's largest hedge fund have asked to pull out, resisting a push to convert the fund into a publicly traded partnership, the Wall Street Journal said. [nN19349250]

(Compiled by Daisy Ku; Editing by David Holmes)