(Updates Open Text and Eletropaulo Metropolitana; adds Xerox, Sanofi, Murray & Roberts, Goldman Sachs, Toys “R” Us and Fortis Healthcare)
April 17 (Reuters) – The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Tuesday:
** Top Xerox Corp shareholders Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason suggested alternatives to the printer maker’s proposed merger with Japan’s Fujifilm, including a plan for the company to monetize some assets.
** Activist hedge fund Blue Harbour Group LP CEO Cliff Robbins told a conference in New York that Canadian business information management software company Open Text Corp could be acquired.
** French healthcare group Sanofi is in exclusive talks to sell its Zentiva European generics drugs arm to private equity firm Advent International for 1.9 billion euros ($2.4 billion), the companies said.
** Goldman Sachs Group Inc is likely to expand its consumer bank through small acquisitions, its finance chief said, without ruling out the idea that it might buy a traditional lender, too.
** Brazilian power distribution company Eletropaulo Metropolitana SA’s shares soared after the company disclosed two rival takeover bids from European energy firms.
** Africa’s biggest pension fund Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has increased its stake in Murray & Roberts to 20 percent after opposing a takeover offer for the South African engineering group.
** Bankrupt retailer Toys “R” Us has rejected an $890 million bid for some of its U.S. stores and locations in Canada from the CEO of Bratz doll maker MGA Entertainment Inc, a person familiar with the matter said.
** India’s Fortis Healthcare Ltd, the target of two rival takeover bids, received an unsolicited investment offer of up to $350 million from a unit of Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, the company said in a regulatory filing.
** Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional is in talks to sell a U.S. unit to Steel Dynamics Inc for around $250 million, according to a report in the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.
** Vedanta Ltd said it got approval from India’s designated court for bankruptcy cases to acquire Electrosteel Steels Ltd.
** Intesa Sanpaolo’s board approved a 3.6 billion euro deal with Swedish credit management company Intrum that will help the Italian bank to cut its bad loan ratio below a 10 percent threshold.
** Deutsche Bank has ended talks to sell its Indian retail and wealth management business to private lender IndusInd Bank Ltd, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
** Private equity firm Platinum Equity’s acquisition of US hotelier Wyndham Worldwide Corp’s European vacation rental business will be backed with an 857 million euro leveraged loan, banking sources said.
** Concert ticketing firm CTS Eventim said it had bought a controlling stake in Vivo Concerti, an Italian promoter of concerts and musicals.
** Czech President Milos Zeman will meet a delegation from Chinese state-run conglomerate CITIC, including chairman Chang Zhenming, his spokesman said, amid reports it could take a stake in another Chinese group’s Czech investments.
** British private equity firm Actis is close to signing a deal to buy the solar power portfolio of Indian conglomerate Shapoorji Pallonji, three people aware of the development said.
** Lagardere, the French media group whose assets include Paris Match magazine and Europe 1 radio, said it was selling some eastern European radio assets to energy investor Daniel Kretinsky’s Czech Media Invest.
** New Zealand’s Fletcher Building, announced a NZ$1.25 billion ($920 million) refinancing plan and the proposed sale of its Formica and steel roofing tiles business, while dismissing a report it had become a takeover target. (Compiled by Ahmed Farhatha and Akshara P in Bengaluru)