The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1330 GMT on Wednesday:

** Billionaire investor Carl Icahn promised Dell Inc shareholders that the company would buy back up to $16 billion of stock if they join his campaign to stop the computer maker from going private.

** Vodafone is discussing a bid of about $10 billion with Germany’s No. 1 cable operator Kabel Deutschland and is confident its raised all-cash offer and absence of antitrust issues put it in a better position than rival Liberty Global, two sources familiar with its thinking said on Wednesday.

** Buyout firm BC Partners has agreed to take over German publisher Springer Science+Business Media for about 3.3 billion euros ($4.4 billion) in the largest private-equity acquisition in Germany in seven years.

** SunGard Data Systems Inc, the computer software maker that was taken private in 2005 for $11.4 billion, is exploring a sale of its data managing operations that could fetch up to $2 billion, several people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

** Sweden has sold nearly half its remaining stake in Nordea , the region’s biggest bank, raising $3.0 billion which will be used to pay down debt as the centre-right government heads into an election next year.

** A New York City real estate company offered to buy the Empire State Building for $2 billion, a written offer showed, significantly below the skyscraper’s appraisal price and about three weeks after investors in the iconic building approved a plan to take the tower public in a real-estate investment trust.

** Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group said it would spend $1.6 billion to buy British yacht maker Sunseeker and develop an upmarket London hotel, the latest example of a trend for Chinese companies to acquire top luxury global brands.

** CITIC Securities’ $1.25 billion agreement to buy brokerage CLSA from Credit Agricole has hit a snag in Taiwan, according to people familiar with the matter, as regulators resist the plan for a Chinese company to own an entity on Taiwanese turf.

** Wanda Group, China’s largest commercial real estate developer, aims to invest about $1 billion to build a five-star hotel in New York as its third major investment outside its home market, Chairman Wang Jianlin said on Tuesday.

** Chinese network equipment and cellphone maker Huawei Technologies Co said it “has no plans to acquire Nokia” , responding to a Financial Times report that it would consider buying the Finish phone maker.

** Japan’s SoftBank Corp cleared a major hurdle in its attempt to buy U.S. wireless provider Sprint Nextel Corp , as rival bidder Dish Network Corp declined to make a new offer after SoftBank sweetened its own bid last week.

** Australia’s Nathan Tinkler has handed his stake in Whitehaven Coal Ltd to lenders to pay off most of a $634 million debt, in a deal that may eventually put one of the country’s biggest independent coal miners into play.

** Russia is considering selling its 53 percent stake in state-controlled telecoms operator Rostelecom to the company’s domestic rivals MTS, MegaFon and Vimpelcom, Kommersant reported on Wednesday.

** Russia’s Gazprom is set to sign a letter of intent to acquire a generating plant in Belgium from Italy’s Enel, a Gazprom source told Reuters on Wednesday. The letter is to be signed this week during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia’s answer to Davos forum.

** Telecom Italia aims to reach a deal with Italy’s telecommunications regulator AGCOM on the spin off of its domestic fixed line network by early next year, the company’s chairman said on Wednesday.

** Private equity firms Apax Partners and LBO France have started exclusive talks to sell French furniture store chain Maisons du Monde to Bain Capital, two sources close to the matter said on Wednesday.

** European aerospace group EADS said on Wednesday the window for a merger with BAE Systems was “closed”.

** Canadian investment firm Fairfax Financial Holdings will raise its stake in Greek real estate firm Eurobank Properties to 42 from a current 19 percent, parent Eurobank said in a bourse filing on Wednesday.

** Indonesia’s biggest media conglomerate, MNC Group , is set to buy free-to-air television station ANTV, owned by Bakrie group’s PT Visi Media Asia.

** Trading firms RGM Advisors LLC and Allston Trading LLC are in early merger discussions to combine their automated trading on stock and futures markets, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday, quoting people familiar with the matter.

** Austrian construction firm Porr said on Wednesday it was in talks to buy parts of FCC unit Alpine Bau, which has filed for insolvency.

** Dubai private equity group Abraaj said on Wednesday it will acquire African dairy firm Fan Milk International, tapping into fast rising consumer spending in six west African countries.

** A majority stake in Saudi fast food chain Kudu has been put up for sale and private equity firm KKR is among the bidders, four banking and industry sources said on Wednesday.

The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Tuesday:

** U.S.-based Royalty Pharma has dropped a hostile bid worth up to $8 billion for Elan, leaving the Irish drug maker free to seek other suitors.

** Vodafone faces a battle for Germany’s largest cable company, Kabel Deutschland, although rival bidder Liberty Global of the United States has bigger regulatory and funding hurdles to overcome.

** Canadian oil and gas company Talisman Energy Inc is exploring the sale of its shale assets in the Eagle Ford basin in south Texas, hoping it could raise as much as $2 billion, two people familiar with the matter said.

** China Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd signed a second takeover deal in a month on Tuesday, offering to buy Carlyle-backed Yashili International Holdings Ltd in a deal worth about HK$12.5 billion ($1.6 billion) as part of a plan to expand its milk powder business.

** GlaxoSmithKline is discussing the sale of its thrombosis drug brands Arixtra and Fraxiparine, along with a related French factory, to Aspen Pharmacare in a deal that could be worth some $1 billion.

** New York-based hedge fund Third Point said it has raised its stake in Sony Corp and urged the Japanese company to create an independent board to run a partially spun-off entertainment arm with Sony’s CEO, Kazuo Hirai, as its chairman.

** Oil refiner Tesoro Corp won approval from U.S. antitrust regulators to buy Northwest Products Pipeline system and related assets from Chevron Corp, on the condition it sells a petroleum terminal in Boise, Idaho. Tesoro struck a deal in December to buy the assets from Chevron for $400 million but lowered the price in May to $355 million after a renegotiation.

** U.S.-based Chevron Corp is selling five Nigerian shallow-water oil blocks, the company said on Tuesday, the latest oil major seeking to dispose of assets in Africa’s biggest producer.

** A direct sale of German publisher Springer Science+Business Media to BC Partners is still an option, even after Springer’s owners said last week their focus was on a stock exchange listing, two people familiar with the talks said on Monday.

** Malaysian gambling giant Genting Bhd has increased its stake in Australia’s Echo Entertainment Group , just weeks after rival casino company Crown Ltd sold its 10 percent stake in Echo.

** A unit of Glencore Xstrata plc entered into an agreement with Orbite Aluminae Inc to purchase smelter-grade alumina (SGA) from its proposed plant in Quebec.

** Belgium-based Alfacam, the troubled provider of Europe’s largest fleet of outside-broadcast vans, will be bought by France’s Euro Media Group, the French company said on Tuesday.

** Newly-listed Lekoil has agreed to buy a 6.5 percent stake in an oilfield off the coast of Nigeria for $30 million amid signs of growing investor appetite for its plan to back Nigerian assets, the company said.

** German industrial conglomerate Siemens is seeking offers from private equity firms to buy its stake in its telecoms equipment joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), three sources familiar with the discussions said on Tuesday.

** PPR turned the page on its retail past and started a new life as a luxury and sports brands group by renaming itself Kering at its annual general meeting on Tuesday.

** Sweden is selling a 5.7 percent stake in Nordea, the Nordic region’s biggest bank, in a move that may give the centre-right ruling coalition some fiscal leeway ahead of an election next year.

** Billionaire investor Carl Icahn on Tuesday laid out a new proposal for Dell Inc, calling on the No. 3 PC maker to buy back 1.1 billion shares and allowing the activist to become a larger stakeholder.

** Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma Inc is looking to sell its dermatology portfolio, which could be worth between $500 million and $1 billion, according to three people familiar with the situation.

** Chinese network equipment and cellphone maker Huawei Technologies Co. would consider buying Finland’s Nokia to help it expand its smartphone business, according to a story on the Financial Times website. (Compiled by Varun Aggarwal and Rohit Tirumala Kumara in Bangalore)

JUNE 19

– U.S. technology services company IBM’s Italian unit to acquire a new company set up from a business owned by Unicredit Business Integrated Solutions S.c.p.a, part of Italian bank UniCredit S.p.A. (notified May 14/deadline June 19)

JUNE 20

– U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines to buy a 49 percent stake in British peer Virgin Atlantic (notified May 15/deadline June 20)

– Dell Chief Executive Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners to buy out personal computer maker Dell Inc (notified May 15/deadline June 20)

JUNE 24

– U.S. derivatives and exchange and clearinghouse operator IntercontinentalExchange Inc to buy New York Stock Exchange operator NYSE Euronext (notified May 17/deadline June 24)

– Private equity firm Triton to buy recycling company Befesa from Spanish renewable energy and infrastructure company Abengoa (notified May 17/deadline June 24/simplified)

JUNE 26

– Spanish book retailer Circulo, which is a joint venture between German media group Bertelsmann and Spanish company Planeta, to acquire joint control of its wholly-owned subsidiary book seller Yadican together with Spanish telecoms operator Telefonica (notified May 22/deadline June 26/simplified)

JUNE 27

– Trading house Argos to buy French energy product retailer Etablissements Joseph Wallach S.A.S (notified May 23/deadline June 27)

– Energy trading house Argos Group Holding B.V. to buy French petrol product retailer Etablissements Joseph Wallach S.A.S. (notified May 23/deadline June 27)

JUNE 28

– Fonds Stratsgique d’Investissement S.A., which is controlled by French investment fund Caisse des Depots et Consignations, to acquire joint control of shipping services provider CMA CGM together with industrial group Yildirim Holding A.S. and holding company Merit Corporation (notified May 24/deadline June 28 )

– Private equity firms Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital to acquire joint control of U.S. business software maker BMC Software Inc (notified May 24/deadline June 28/simplified)

– Investment bank Goldman Sachs and financial services company Thomas H. Lee Partners to acquire joint control of processed food producer CTI Foods (notified May 24/deadline June 28/simplified)

– Yamaha Motor Co Ltd and Kayaba Industry Ltd to set up a joint venture in Japan to make motorcycle suspension systems (notified May 24/deadline June 28/simplified)

JULY 2

– U.S. group General Electric Co to buy the aviation business of Italian plane components maker Avio from private equity fund Cinven and Italian defence group Finmeccanica (notified May 13/deadline extended to July 2 from June 18 after GE offered commitments)

– U.S. food and grain-handling companies ConAgra Foods , Cargill and CHS to combine their North American flour milling businesses to be called Ardent Mills (notified May 28/deadline July 2/simplified)

– Giant U.S. food and grain-handling companies ConAgra Foods Inc, Cargill and CHS Inc to combine their North American flour milling businesses into a new venture Ardent Mills, that would control more than a third of U.S. capacity (notified May 28/deadline July 2/simplified)

– French private equity firm PAI Partners to buy R&R Ice Cream from rival Oaktree Capital (notified May 28/deadline July 2/simplified)

JULY 4

– Norwegian telecoms provider Telenor to acquire Bulgarian mobile operator Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile EAD and telephony products retailer Germanos Telecom Bulgaria EAD from Greek telecoms company OTE (notified May 30/deadline July 4)

JULY 5

– U.S. diversified manufacturer Crane Co to buy U.S. manufacturer of electronic bill acceptors and transaction mechanisms MEI Conlux from private equity firms Bain Capital and Advantage Partners (notified May 31/deadline July 5)

– Shell to buy some liquified natural gas assets from Spanish oil company Repsol (notified May 31/deadline July 5/simplified)

JULY 8

– U.S. medical product maker Baxter International Inc to buy Swedish kidney dialysis product company Gambro (notified June 3/deadline July 8 )

JULY 9

– Private equity firm KKE to acquire indirect control of U.S. industrial machinery manufacturer Gardner Denver Inc (notified June 4/deadline July 9/simplified)

JULY 10

– Private equity firm Bain Capital to acquire sole control of German brakes maker FTE (notified June 5/deadline July 10/simplified)

JULY 12

– German agricultural cooperative BayWa to acquire joint control of German grain trading company Bohnhorst Agrarhandel (notified June 7/deadline July 12/simplified)

– Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to buy waters services supplier South Staffordshire plc (notified June 7/deadline July 12/simplified)

JULY 15

– Norwegian maritime classification firm Det Norske Veritas to merge with Hamburg-based peer Germanischer Lloyd (notified June 10/deadline July 15)

SEPT 3

– Greek carrier Aegean Airlines to buy Olympic Air (notified Feb. 28/deadline extended for the second time to Sept. 3 from April 23 after the Commission opened an in-depth investigation)

SEPT 6

– Swedish refiner Nynas to purchase certain assets from Royal Dutch Shell’s Harburg refinery (notified Feb. 19/deadline extended for the second time to Sept. 6 from Aug. 8 )

The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1330 GMT on Thursday:

** U.S.-based Royalty Pharma said on Thursday that it did not appear to have the backing of Elan shareholders in a vote that is set to decide the fate of its hostile bid of up to $8 billion for the Irish drug firm.

** Gannett Co Inc, the largest newspaper chain in the United States, agreed to pay $1.5 billion in cash for television company Belo Corp, with an aim to making broadcast a bigger part of the business than newspapers.

** Poland’s biggest bank PKO BP is not looking for more domestic deals after its $887 million purchase of the local arm of Sweden’s Nordea, it said on Thursday, leaving rivals to fight out an expected further consolidation in the sector.

** Indonesian conglomerate Bosowa Corp is set to be announced as the preferred buyer of a 30 percent stake in mid-size lender Bank Bukopin, worth about $250 million, two sources with direct knowledge of the auction said on Thursday.

** Clearwire Corp’s board urged shareholders on Wednesday to accept a tender offer from Dish Network Corp over an earlier deal with majority owner Sprint Nextel Corp to buy out the minority shareholders of the wireless service provider.

** French utility EDF could take a stake of up to 40 percent in Rio Tinto’s Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne aluminium plants in exchange for agreeing a discount on the electricity it supplies, financial daily Les Echos reported.

** British utility Centrica said it had bought a 25 percent stake in a venture licensed to explore for shale gas in northern England from Cuadrilla Resources and AJ Lucas for 40 million pounds ($62.8 million).

** Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev has been in talks with investors about selling his 4.5 percent stake in flagship carrier Aeroflot OAO, the tycoon was quoted as saying on Thursday by business daily Vedomosti.

** Rhoen-Klinikum’s owners unexpectedly voted to scrap a requirement for shareholders holding 90 percent of its capital to approve major strategic decisions, which could put the German hospital operator back onto Fresenius’s shopping list.

** State-run Korea Electric Power Corp (KEPCO) denied a local media report that it is planning to bid for a stake in European nuclear fuel producer Urenco. A KEPCO spokesman said KEPCO instead has been considering investing in the expansion of Urenco’s U.S. plant in the state of New Mexico.

** Abu Dhabi property firms Aldar Properties PJSC and Sorouh Real Estate said the two companies expect to close their state-backed merger by June 30, pending a ministerial resolution approving the deal.

** Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd said on Thursday it had ended merger talks with shipbuilding rival Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co Ltd and demoted its president, Satoshi Hasegawa, who supported the discussions.

The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1330 GMT on Wednesday:

** British mobile firm Vodafone has approached Kabel Deutschland about a bid for Germany’s biggest cable operator that could top 7 billion euros ($9.3 billion) and help fend off competition in its most important European market.

** India’s Apollo Tyres Ltd said it would buy U.S.-based Cooper Tire & Rubber Co for about $2.5 billion in a deal that would make it the world’s seventh-largest tire maker.

** Hedge funds that bet Severn Trent would agree to a Canadian-led takeover are reeling from losses after the water company refused to talk, casting further doubt on their money-making abilities in an anaemic M&A environment.

** Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has recommended Sprint Nextel Corp shareholders vote for SoftBank Corp’s revised offer, after the Japanese mobile operator sweetened its buyout terms.

** A majority of CP All Pcl shareholders approved a planned $6.6 billion acquisition of cash-and-carry wholesaler Siam Makro Pcl which is expected to be completed by the third-quarter of this year.

** DBS Group Holdings Ltd may review its planned acquisition of a stake in Indonesia’s PT Bank Danamon if the Singapore lender is allowed to buy only a 40 percent share, DBS’s chairman told Singapore’s Business Times newspaper.

** Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp is bidding for a 29 percent stake in Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto’s Coal & Allied unit, valued at an estimated $2 billion, two sources familiar with the process said.

** Australian satellite communications company NewSat has flagged its interest in Singapore Telecommunications Ltd’s A$2 billion ($1.88 billion) sale of its Australian unit, Optus Satellite.

** Oil sands developer Cenovus Energy Inc said on Tuesday that Surge Energy Inc will pay C$240 million ($236 million) for its properties in the Shaunavon tight oil field in Saskatchewan.

** Japan’s Orix Corp said it has agreed to buy a 25.7 percent stake in Bahrain-based insurer Mediterranean and Gulf Insurance and Reinsurance Company B.S.C (Medgulf) for a little over $200 million, the latest deal by a Japanese financial company seeking growth overseas amid weak prospects at home.

** Miners Rio Tinto and Glencore Xstrata have held early-stage talks to consider a plan that could combine thermal coal assets in Australia as they battle low prices and high costs, two sources familiar with the plan said.

** Commodities trader Gunvor said it plans to buy a minority stake in a new oil products terminal in Indonesia as part of a global buying spree to acquire physical assets and boost its footprint in Asia.

JUNE 14

– Diversified U.S. manufacturer Honeywell International Inc. to acquire mobile computing device maker Intermec For $600 million (notified Feb. 15/deadline June 14)

JUNE 17

– U.S. media group Time Warner to acquire sole control of TV operator Central European Media Enterprises in which it currently holds a stake (notified May 8/deadline June 17)

– Private equity firm CVC to acquire sole control of German energy services company ista GmbH (notified May 8/deadline June 17/simplified)

JUNE 18

– U.S. group General Electric Co to buy the aviation business of Italian plane components maker Avio from private equity fund Cinven and Italian defence group Finmeccanica (notified May 13/deadline June 18 )

JUNE 19

– U.S. technology services company IBM’s Italian unit to acquire a new company set up from a business owned by Unicredit Business Integrated Solutions S.c.p.a, part of Italian bank UniCredit S.p.A. (notified May 14/deadline June 19)

– German investor Joh A Benckiser (JAB) to buy Dutch coffee and tea maker D.E. Master Blenders 1753 (notified May 14/deadline June 19/simplified)

JUNE 20

– U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines to buy a 49 percent stake in British peer Virgin Atlantic (notified May 15/deadline June 20)

– Dell Chief Executive Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners to buy out personal computer maker Dell Inc (notified May 15/deadline June 20)

JUNE 24

– U.S. derivatives and exchange and clearinghouse operator IntercontinentalExchange Inc to buy New York Stock Exchange operator NYSE Euronext (notified May 17/deadline June 24)

– Private equity firm Triton to buy recycling company Befesa from Spanish renewable energy and infrastructure company Abengoa (notified May 17/deadline June 24/simplified)

JUNE 26

– Spanish book retailer Circulo, which is a joint venture between German media group Bertelsmann and Spanish company Planeta, to acquire joint control of its wholly-owned subsidiary book seller Yadican together with Spanish telecoms operator Telefonica (notified May 22/deadline June 26/simplified)

JUNE 27

– Trading house Argos to buy French energy product retailer Etablissements Joseph Wallach S.A.S (notified May 23/deadline June 27)

– Energy trading house Argos Group Holding B.V. to buy French petrol product retailer Etablissements Joseph Wallach S.A.S. (notified May 23/deadline June 27)

JUNE 28

– Fonds Stratsgique d’Investissement S.A., which is controlled by French investment fund Caisse des Depots et Consignations, to acquire joint control of shipping services provider CMA CGM together with industrial group Yildirim Holding A.S. and holding company Merit Corporation (notified May 24/deadline June 28 )

– Private equity firms Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital to acquire joint control of U.S. business software maker BMC Software Inc (notified May 24/deadline June 28/simplified)

– Investment bank Goldman Sachs and financial services company Thomas H. Lee Partners to acquire joint control of processed food producer CTI Foods (notified May 24/deadline June 28/simplified)

– Yamaha Motor Co Ltd and Kayaba Industry Ltd to set up a joint venture in Japan to make motorcycle suspension systems (notified May 24/deadline June 28/simplified)

JULY 2

– U.S. food and grain-handling companies ConAgra Foods , Cargill and CHS to combine their North American flour milling businesses to be called Ardent Mills (notified May 28/deadline July 2/simplified)

– Giant U.S. food and grain-handling companies ConAgra Foods Inc, Cargill and CHS Inc to combine their North American flour milling businesses into a new venture Ardent Mills, that would control more than a third of U.S. capacity (notified May 28/deadline July 2/simplified)

– French private equity firm PAI Partners to buy R&R Ice Cream from rival Oaktree Capital(notified May 28/deadline July 2/simplified)

JULY 4

– Norwegian telecoms provider Telenor to acquire Bulgarian mobile operator Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile EAD and telephony products retailer Germanos Telecom Bulgaria EAD from Greek telecoms company OTE (notified May 30/deadline July 4)

JULY 5

– U.S. diversified manufacturer Crane Co to buy U.S. manufacturer of electronic bill acceptors and transaction mechanisms MEI Conlux from private equity firms Bain Capital and Advantage Partners (notified May 31/deadline July 5)

– Shell to buy some liquified natural gas assets from Spanish oil company Repsol (notified May 31/deadline July 5/simplified)

JULY 8

– U.S. medical product maker Baxter International Inc to buy Swedish kidney dialysis product company Gambro (notified June 3/deadline July  8 )

JULY 9

– Private equity firm KKE to acquire indirect control of U.S. industrial machinery manufacturer Gardner Denver Inc (notified June 4/deadline July 9/simplified)

JULY 10

– Private equity firm Bain Capital to acquire sole control of German brakes maker FTE (notified June 5/deadline July 10/simplified)

JULY 12

– Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to buy waters services supplier South Staffordshire plc (notified June 7/deadline July 12/simplified)

SEPT 3

– Greek carrier Aegean Airlines to buy Olympic Air (notified Feb. 28/deadline extended for the second time to Sept. 3 from April 23 after the Commission opened an in-depth investigation)

SEPT 6

– Swedish refiner Nynas to purchase certain assets from Royal Dutch Shell’s Harburg refinery (notified Feb. 19/deadline extended for the second time to Sept. 6 from Aug. 8 )

The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1330 GMT on Friday:

** Royalty Pharma US Partners LP’s $6.4 billion bid for Irish drug firm Elan Corp Plc had been accepted by just 7.5 percent of the target company’s shareholders before the U.S. investment firm extended the closing date by just over two weeks on Thursday.

** Reliance Industries Ltd’s telecommunications unit will lease up to 45,000 mobile masts from Reliance Communications Ltd in a deal valued at more than 120 billion rupees ($2.1 billion) over the lifetime of the contract, the Indian companies said.

** Brazilian homebuilder Gafisa SA agreed to sell a 70 percent stake of its high-end Alphaville unit to private equity firms Blackstone Real Estate Advisors LP and Patria Investimentos Ltda for 1.4 billion reais ($657 million), according to a securities filing on Friday.

** Spain’s CaixaBank SA has sold a 3.7 percent stake in Carlos Slim’s Grupo Financiero Inbursa SAB de CV for 387 million euros ($511 million) to the Mexican billionaire’s family, part of a move to shed assets and shore up capital.

** Finnish stainless steel maker Outokumpu Oyj said bids received so far for its Italian plant, Acciai Speciali Terni, “have not been satisfactory”. The Terni site was valued at as much as $1 billion a year ago, but on Outokumpu’s books it now has a value of 560 million euros ($739 million), and could sell for less.

** China’s Dalian Wanda is in talks to buy British yachtmaker Sunseeker in the latest example of a Chinese company snapping up a foreign luxury brand. A company source confirmed a Financial Times report that Wanda was expected to complete a 300 million pound ($465 million) takeover by the end of the month.

** Italian businessman Luigi Zunino has submitted an offer to buy out troubled real estate company Risanamento SpA, two sources close to the matter said.

** Canada’s Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc has pulled out of a possible bid for a Serbian drug company Galenika Pharmaceuticals in the wake of its $8.7 billion purchase of contact lenses maker Bausch & Lomb.

Citing last months’s acquisition deal, as well as the hostility of local unions towards the purchase of Galenika, Valeant said it had decided not to follow up its letter of intent relating to the company’s privatisation.