Saturday Papers: Blackstone plans to buy Dynegy - bid news and gossip

Financial Times

* Blackstone said it plans to buy Dynegy in a deal that values the power provider at $4.7bn; in a separate transaction, Blackstone will sell four of Dynegy’s plants to NRG for $1.3bn.

* RSA has been rebuffed in a £5bn ($7.8bn) approach to buy the home, motor and commercial insurance businesses of Aviva; RSA is not expected to immediately return with a higher offer.

* Carlyle set to sell Britax Childcare, maker of children’s car safety seats and pushchairs, after receiving several approaches from potential trade and financial bidders.

* The number of assignments being undertaken by interims in the banking sector in the first six months of 2010 is up 237% on the same period in 2009, according to the poll for the Interim Management Association, the trade body.

* A loophole in Mark Hurd’s contract made it hard for Hewlett-Packard to dismiss him outright and added to pressure on the board to give him severance pay which could be worth nearly $40m.

* Leading Latin American airlines LAN of Chile and TAM of Brazil have announced merger plans to form the world’s biggest airline in terms of market capitalisation.

* Companies with credit ratings below investment grade this week sold $14.3bn of new high-yield or “junk” bonds, according to Thomson Reuters.

* Alabama filed a law suit against BP and the other companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on Friday.

* England’s spending watchdog for local government is to be scrapped in a surprise move that the government says will save £50m.

* London carmaker Manganese Bronze’s plans for a £14m cash injection by Chinese carmaker Geely fell through.

* Neil Woodford, investment chief at Invesco Perpetual, said he would not bail out utilities if they went to the market for cash.