April 17 (Reuters) – The following bids, mergers,
acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on
Wednesday.
** Arabtec, the contractor part-owned by Abu Dhabi
state fund Aabar, agreed with Korea’s Samsung Engineering Co
to form a new company that will focus on large
energy and power-related projects in the region.
** Abu Dhabi telecom group Etisalat is set to sign
an $8 billion loan facility next week with as many as 16 banks
to help fund its Maroc Telecom stake bid, bankers said.
** Germany’s Daimler sold its remaining stake in
EADS for about 2.2 billion euros ($2.9 billion),
exiting its aerospace activities completely nearly 13 years
after it helped to found the Airbus parent company.
** Athens attracted two bids in the sale of a 33 percent
stake in betting monopoly OPAP, one of its most
valuable assets with a total market value of about 2.2 billion
euros ($2.87 billion) on the Athens bourse.
Bidders include activist U.S. investment fund Third Point
and Emma Delta, a group controlled by a Greek ship-owner George
Melisanidis and Czech investor Jiri Smecj.
** Nigerian oil firm Oando is close to securing
funds to buy ConocoPhillips’ Nigerian assets, the
company’s chief executive said, as he looked to allay fears it
is struggling to raise finance for the $1.79 billion deal.
** German media conglomerate Bertelsmann expects
to raise as much as 1.6 billion euros ($2.1 billion) from the
sale of a stake in broadcaster RTL as it seeks to fund
its growth ambitions.
** Russia-focused investment fund United Capital Partners
(UCP) has become the biggest shareholder in Russia’s top social
network VKontakte after buying 48 percent of its shares from the
company’s co-founders, the fund said on Wednesday.
Analysts at Renaissance Capital value VKontakte at $1.5
billion based on the terms of a share deal in 2010, but
suggested the latest transaction might have implied a higher
valuation.
** Atlas Pipeline Partners LP said it would buy
privately owned natural gas gathering and processing company
TEAK Midstream LLC for $1 billion in cash to expand into the
Eagle Ford shale field in South Texas.
** Investment group IMIC is preparing a 147 million
pounds ($223 million) offer for West Africa-focused miner
Afferro , the biggest move yet in its strategy
of building an Africa-orientated resources group.
** Hikma Pharmaceuticals said on Wednesday it would
keep its fast-growing injectables business after weighing up a
number of unsolicited approaches for the unit. Jordan-based
Hikma said in March that it was assessing third party interest
in the business, although it was not seeking a sale.
** Peru could potentially buy a stake in one of the
country’s two main oil refineries from Spain’s Repsol
to help ensure adequate fuel supplies to consumers, Prime
Minister Juan Jimenez said late on Tuesday.
