Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions

(Adds Coca-Cola Hellenic, DuPont, Bridgepoint Education, Dow Chemical)

July 25 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S. and Asian companies were reported by 2000 GMT on Monday:

(For Reuters columns on deals, click on )

** Reinsurer Validus Holdings Ltd took its $3.2 billion offer to buy Transatlantic Holdings Inc directly to shareholders on Monday, as it could not agree with its peer's conditions for merger talks.

** Dutch bancassurer ING is to sell most of its Latin American operation to Colombia's GrupoSura for 2.6 billion euros ($3.7 bln) in a deal resulting from its state rescue in 2008.

** Reynolds Group Holdings, part of New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart's Rank Group, said it expects to raise an additional $500 million in senior unsecured debt to repurchase Graham Packaging Co Inc's debt.

** Italy's Pirelli & C SpA and its Russian partner are paying 222 million euros ($320.2 million) for a factory in Russia as part of a deal announced in November.

** A company source at Aksa Enerji Uretim AS told Reuters it would sell a 26.47 percent stake to Goldman Sachs in 3 months for $450 million, adding that the sale will take place as market conditions are not suitable for a secondary public offering.

** Kumho Industrial Co is offering its 20 million shares in Daewoo Engineering & Construction to raise up to 273 billion won ($259.5 million), IFR said on Monday.

** Greek Coke bottler Coca-Cola Hellenic (CCH) (HLBr.AT) has won shareholder approval to buy out the Nigerian Bottling Company and turn it into a wholly-owned subsidiary in a deal worth $136 million, its local unit said on Monday.

** India's Religare Enterprises said on Monday its investment banking arm Religare Capital Markets has acquired majority stake in South African broking firm Noah Financial Innovation.

** CLSA Capital Partners, an asset management arm of brokerage CLSA, said on Monday that it has invested $20 million for a minority stake in Indonesian vehicle financing firm Sinar Mitra Sepadan (SMS) Finance.

** Wireless chip maker Qualcomm Inc bought some assets of GestureTek, a developer of gesture recognition technology, to include the new technology in its current and next-generation Snapdragon processors.

** Shares of Bridgepoint Education Inc fell as much as 13 percent, after the a provider of post-secondary education services said that its largest shareholder, Warburg Pincus Private Equity, was diluting its stake in the company.

** Chemical company DuPont said on Monday it bought solar technology start-up Innovalight Inc in a move to help double sales to the solar industry to $2 billion by 2014. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

** A mammoth petrochemical joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical Co should net $500 million annually for each of its owners when it opens in five years, Dow said on Monday.

(Compiled by Kavyanjali Kaushik and Maneesha Tiwari in Bangalore)