** Malaysia's AirAsia Bhd dismissed a media report that it is weighing a bid for Japan's embattled Skymark Airlines Inc, saying it is focused on a budget airline it is setting up with Japan's biggest online retailer, Rakuten Inc , and other companies.
** British construction firm Carillion ramped up the pressure on Balfour Beatty to reopen merger talks on Tuesday, making a third offer which valued the engineering company at 2.1 billion pounds ($3.5 billion).
** Botox maker Allergan Inc has approached Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd and at least one other company about a potential takeover in a bid to avert the $53 billion hostile takeover from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc VRX.TO, the Wall Street Journal said.
** Citigroup Inc is considering the sale of its retail-banking business in Japan, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
** Private equity firm Apax Partners LLP is exploring a sale of U.S. healthcare information technology company TriZetto Corp, hoping to fetch as much as $3 billion including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.
** Bumble Bee Foods has received takeover overtures from canned tuna giant Thai Union Frozen Products PCL and U.S. packaged foods company Post Holdings Inc in recent months, according to people familiar with the matter.
** BHP Billiton , the world's biggest mining company, announced plans to spin off businesses worth an estimated $16 billion, most of them acquired in its 2001 merger with Billiton, to focus on its most profitable activities.
BHP Billiton is also in talks with potential buyers for all, or part, of its Nickel West division in Australia after excluding the business from the restructuring.
** U.S. private equity firm KKR has appointed Rothschild to carve out and sell the public sector division of its software firm Northgate Information Solutions, two sources familiar with the situation said. The sale could be worth around $600 million and will be marketed to private equity funds in an auction which will kick off later this year, one of the sources said.
** Hong Kong-listed conglomerate Fosun International Ltd is in talks to buy Swiss Re AG's U.S. life insurance arm in a possible deal worth $400 million to $500 million, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
** South Africa's financial regulator said on Tuesday it had given some investment funds the go-ahead to divide up assets they hold in troubled African Bank to limit new investors' exposure to the lender's bad debts.
** Austrian cranemaker Palfinger AG has agreed with Russian truckmaker Kamaz to set up two joint ventures in Russia this year, pending regulatory approvals.
** The Czech arm of Italian bank UniCredit has taken a nearly 6 percent stake in O2 Czech Republic by buying shares from investors who were unable to sell their stock in the telecom group's recent buyout offer.
** Canadian retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc and China's Tencent Holdings Ltd are among suitors short-listed to buy a $16 billion minority stake in China's Sinopec Sales, the world's largest fuel retail network, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
** Swiss drugmaker Novartis has agreed to take a 15 percent stake in Gamida Cell, an Israeli developer of stem cell therapies, in a deal that could reach more than $600 million, Gamida's parent said.
** Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it had acquired U.S. air conditioner distributor Quietside LLC as part of its push to strengthen its "smart home" business. A Samsung spokesman declined to elaborate on the price.
** Telecom Italia will hold a board meeting next week to discuss an offer to acquire Vivendi SA's Brazilian broadband unit GVT SA, a source close to the matter said. Last week Telecom Italia confirmed its interest in acquiring GVT, challenging a 6.7 billion euro ($9 billion) bid by Spain's Telefonica SA.
** Major Saudi Arabian food producer Savola Group said it had conducted preliminary talks with one of the largest shareholders in Kuwait Food Co (Americana) on a potential purchase of that shareholder's stake.
** Global private equity firm Warburg Pincus and China's Shanghai Baosteel Gases Ltd have agreed a deal to buy the industrial gas assets of Henan Jinkai Chemical Investment Holding Group for 3 billion yuan ($489 million), the two partners said.
** Privately held AccentHealth - a company that shows CNN programming hosted by Dr Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, on TV screens in doctors' waiting rooms - is exploring a sale that could fetch $300 million, people familiar with the matter said.
** Swedish contract drug maker and developer Recipharm will buy Italy's Corvette Pharmaceutical Services Group for 1.1 billion Swedish crowns ($160.38 million) from private equity Group LBO Italia Investimenti, the companies said.
** PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk (BRI) said it is exploring a potential acquisition of state-owned Indonesian life insurer PT Asuransi Jiwasraya.
** Bank of Moscow, a unit of Russia's second-biggest lender VTB, bought a 42.3 percent in real estate developer HALS-Development, the companies said.
** India's JSW Steel Ltd has agreed to acquire local steelmaker Welspun Maxsteel Ltd for an enterprise value of 10 billion rupees ($164.57 million) from Welspun Enterprises to bolster its production capacity.
** Mexican supermarket chain Comercial Mexicana is closing in on an agreement to sell most of its restaurant business for around 1 billion pesos ($77 million), Bloomberg reported, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
** Peruvian miner Buenaventura is taking full control of the Chucapaca gold deposit in southern Peru by buying a 51 percent stake in the project from its South African partner Gold Fields, the company said. The acquisition will cost $81 million in cash plus royalty payments.
** Skilled Healthcare Group Inc and privately held Genesis HealthCare said they have agreed to combine in an all-stock transaction that will create one of the largest U.S. providers of long-term medical care services.
** Biosensors International Ltd said a private equity unit of CITIC Group has decided not to proceed with its takeover bid of the company. - Reuters
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