Friday Papers: D Börse and NYSE Euronext tie-up faces probe - tips, comment and bids

Financial Times

* Tie up between Deutsche Börse and NYSE Euronext faces an in-depth probe after European antitrust authorities raised “significant concerns” over its dominance in derivatives trading.

* Investec would move to break up the stockbroking and wealth management arms of Evolution Group were the South African bank successful in its bid for the UK stockbroker.

* Kraft Foods said that it would split its North American grocery division from its global snacks business less than 18 months after its hostile $19 billion takeover of Cadbury, the UK chocolate maker.

* Blackstone plans to invest a combined €2.5 billion into the construction of Germany’s biggest ever offshore wind farms.

* Advent International, the US private equity group, has agreed to buy 90% of the smart card and identity businesses of France’s Oberthur in a deal worth €1.15 billion.

* China’s ICBC has agreed to buy 80% of the Argentine operations of South Africa’s Standard Bank for $600 million.

* Veolia, the world’s biggest listed water utility, is quitting half of the 77 countries where it does business after problems in the US, Italy and Morocco forced it to expand restructuring plans drastically.

* Lee Robinson, the founder of London hedge fund Trafalgar Asset Managers, is readying a new hedge fund to profit from the devaluation and collapse of western economies.

* Knight Capital Group, one of the largest market-making firms in the world, has announced it will cut 6 per cent of its workforce as its restructures its business due to a broad decline in trading activity.

* Paulson & Co has lost 21.6% of the value of its flagship fund so far this year as its losing streak continued into July.

* IntercontinentalExchange has lowered the financial threshold that banks and brokers need to meet to become members of its North American credit default swap clearer to over $100 million, from $5 billion.