Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions

Wed Feb 23, 2011 2:32pm GMT

Feb 23 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals involving European, U.S. and Asian companies were reported by 1430 GMT on Wednesday.

** Enterprise Products Partners L.P. has offered to buy its majority-owned midstream energy firm Duncan Energy Partners L.P. for about $2.42 billion in units to ramp up its pipeline services amid higher North American gas production.

** Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Norinchukin Bank are planning to invest an additional 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in credit card firm Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos, two sources familiar with the matter said.

** Rio Tinto , the world's third-largest miner by market value, said it received a binding $340 million offer from industrial materials group Imerys for its talc business.

** Belgian holding company RHJ International will sell its 77.9 percent stake in Japanese car switches maker Niles Co. Ltd for 15.5 billion yen ($187.5 million) in cash, it said.

** Cable & Wireless Communications said it would sell its operating business in Bermuda to Canada's Bragg Group for $70 million, as it remodels its Caribbean operations to battle a weak economy and strong competition.

** Nasdaq OMX Group Inc could launch a rival bid for NYSE Euronext to avoid being left out of a global merger frenzy among exchanges, a source said.

** Rotork PLC said it is to buy Rotork Servo Controles De Mexico, its Mexican sales and service agent.

** Lockheed Martin Corp is selling its Pacific Architects and Engineers Inc military services business to private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg LLC.

** Tesco , Britain's biggest retailer, is not the leading contender for Polish retail chain Zabka, put on the block by private equity firm Penta Investments, several sources told Reuters.

** Hong Kong's CLP Holdings Ltd is likely to sell a 24 percent stake in Thailand's Electricity Generating Pcl (EGCO) to Tokyo Electric Power Co , a source close to the deal said.

** Danish shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk expects to finalise the sale of supermarket chain Netto in the UK "some time in 2011", Chief Executive Nils Andersen told a teleconference.

** Natixis SA is still interested in UniCredit SpA's asset manager Pioneer, the French bank's chairman said and UniCredit said bids should be made by the end of March.

** Dutch food and chemicals group CSM unveiled plans a for a new bio plastics joint venture and said it was in talks to set up the new factory with Thai-based Indorama Ventures .

** Qatar is open to buying stakes in part state-owned UK lenders RBS and Lloyds Banking Group and has discussed investing in the UK, Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said.

** Spanish infrastructure firm Abertis is studying a plan to spin off its car parking and logistics units, the latest indication of the influence its new, dividend-hungry private equity shareholder is exerting.
(Compiled by Swetha Gopinath and Rachel Chitra in Bangalore, sourced:Thomson Reuters)