British insurer Aviva is to sell its Vietnamese business to Canadian insurer ManuLife it said on Monday, as it pushes ahead with plans to pull out from its non-core markets.

A record rebound in merger activity this year and a rise in litigation has brought with it an upsurge in insurance policies that give companies and private equity firms cover for when a deal goes wrong, industry officials say.

Soilbuild Group's executive chairman will team up with Blackstone Group to take its listed unit Soilbuild Business Space REIT private in a S$700.3 million ($524.49 million) deal, the real estate company said on Monday.

Mutual insurer Groupe Macif has stepped up efforts to buy Aviva's French arm in a deal worth about 3 billion euros after an Allianz-led consortium bowed out amid firm resistance from French unions and local partners, sources told Reuters.

ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) -Zurich Insurance and Farmers Exchanges have agreed to buy MetLife's U.S. property and casualty business for $3.94 billion, the insurers said on Friday, after the COVID-19 pandemic made motor and home insurers more profitable.

(Reuters) -Australian buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) firm Zip Co Ltd said on Friday it signed a deal with Facebook to allow small- and medium-sized companies to use its payment service for advertising on the social media giant's platform.

Italy's Banco BPM and BPER Banca are considering a possible merger with a view to reaching a deal in the first half of 2021, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Mexican real estate investment trust (REIT) Fibra Uno said on Tuesday it had completed the sale of six properties in cities in northern Mexico for $98.8 million in total.

Online lending startup Social Finance Inc (SoFi) has held discussions with blank-check acquisition companies about a deal that would allow it to debut in the stock market, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Societe Generale and Credit du Nord have approved a plan to merge their retail banking operations after the boards of both French institutions met separately over the weekend, Les Echos reported on Sunday.