Saturday Papers: Buy-out battle rages for Findus Italy - bid news and gossip

Financial Times

* Permira, Lion Capital and BC Partners are set to enter the final bid for Unilever’s Findus Italy expected next week; Findus has an enterprise value of about €700m and is expected to fetch up to €800m for Unilever.

* Some of the UK’s biggest investors, including Schroders, are threatening to shun the initial public offering of Ocado, priced at 200p to 275p, which would value the online grocer at between £800m and £1.3bn.

* Vallar is considering buying assets put up for sale by Anglo American; the assets include Copebras, the phosphates supplier, and Catalão, a Brazilian maker of iron alloys, as well as Scaw Metals, the South African steel manufacturer; the move came after Vallar closed its £700m flotation yesterday.

* Robert Gillespie, one of the City’s longest-serving rainmakers, is set to take the top job at the Takeover Panel; Gillespie, a senior banker at Evercore, will take over from Philip Remnant.

* BC Partners and Silver Lake Partners are buying healthcare servicer MultiPlan from Carlyle for more than $3bn.

* Air Products, the US industrial gases company, on Thursday increased its hostile offer for rival Airgas to $63.50 a share in cash, valuing the company at $5.3bn.

* Shareholders of Raiffeisen International, one of central and eastern Europe’s biggest lenders, on Thursday voted to approve a merger with RZB, its unlisted Austrian parent.

* Peugeot aims to more than double its market share in China with a Chang’an tie-up.

* Australian energy group Santos is holding talks with companies interested in buying part of its stake in the Gladstone liquefied natural gas project.

The Daily Telegraph

* Wanda Dorosz, who set up Quorum Oil and Gas Technology Fund more than 24 years ago, plans $10m case over dismissal.