UPDATE 2-Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions
(Updates Transalpina, adds VEB, Eidos)
Jan 15 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S. and Asian companies were reported by 2100 GMT on Thursday.
(For Reuters columns on deals, double-click on [DEALTALK/])
** South Korea hopes to raise 4.6 trillion won ($3.4 billion) via state-run firms selling stakes in domestic companies, including Korea Life and GM Daewoo, in its latest move to reform state-run institutions.
To read more, please double click on [ID:nSEO27569]
** French bank BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) may bid for about 60 percent of custodian-services business Caceis, jointly owned by rival banks Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) and Natixis (CNAT.PA), La Tribune reported. [ID:nLF416153]
** Speech recognition technology developer Nuance Communications Inc (NUAN.O) said that it would buy speech-related patents from International Business Machines (IBM.N). [ID:nN15482432]
** Investment firm Warburg Pincus agreed to buy a stake of about 7 percent in speech recognition technology supplier Nuance Communications Inc (NUAN.O). [ID:nBNG281170]
** Russian state-controlled VEB bank owns a 75-percent stake in Ukraine's Prominvestbank after buying new shares worth 1.3 billion hryvnias ($169 million), Prominvest said. [ID:nLF759440]
** Redefine Income Fund (RDFJ.J) plans to offer to buy peers ApexHi Properties APAJ.J and Madison (MNDJ.J) to create a major South African property fund that would attract international investors. [ID:nLF101481]
** Italy's second biggest power producer Edison SpA (EDN.MI) may sell a 25 percent stake in an Egyptian gas field, the company's chief executive said. [ID:nLF6006]
** Energy holding company Transalpina di Energia (TdE), which controls Italy's second-biggest utility Edison SpA (EDN.MI), is interested in financier Romain Zaleski's 10 percent stake in Edison, TdE's chief executive said. [ID:nLF736423]
** Spain's Prisa (PRS.MC) cannot agree on a price to sell its Digital+ pay TV unit to potential buyers Telefonica (TEF.MC) and Vivendi (VIV.PA) and has pulled out of talks, Negocio reported citing sources close to the talks. [ID:nLF672268]
** Britain's Eidos Plc EIDE.L, the developer of the 'Tomb Raider' computer games series, said it had received a takeover approach. [ID:nLF9587]
** Ahli Bank of Qatar AABQ.QA said the Gulf state's sovereign wealth fund would begin buying shares in the lender next week and would take 10 percent of its share capital by the end of 2009. [ID:nLF412589] (Compiled by Amiteshwar Singh and Anand Basu in Bangalore)
