Saturday Papers: Caterpillar buys MWM from 3i for €580m - tips, comment and bids

Financial Times

* 3i, the private equity group, has sold MWM, the German engine maker, to Caterpillar of the US for €580 million.

* SGX, the Singapore exchange, is preparing to launch a takeover offer of more than A$6bn ($5.8bn) for its Australian counterpart, ASX, as early as Monday in a deal that would combine two of Asia’s biggest exchange operators.

* PetroVietnam, the state-owned oil and gas group, is considering taking up its right to buy BP’s assets in Vietnam, potentially scuppering a $1.8 billion deal the UK oil group has agreed with TNK-BP, its Russian joint venture.

* Trafigura, the world’s second largest metals trader, has sold a major stake in Peru-listed lead and zinc miner Volcan Compañía Minera for $400 million to local investors.

* General Electric has agreed to purchase Clarient, a molecular testing company, for about $580 million in cash as it seeks to expand into the growing market for products and tests that analyse cancers.

* PartyGaming said its merger with sport-focused operator Bwin was proceeding as planned, as it saw a 9% rise in revenues in the three months to the end of September.

* Ferrovial is preparing the sale of a 10% stake in UK airports operator BAA.

* BHP Billiton has offered to allow an independent panel to monitor undertakings given to the Canadian government as part of the Australian miner’s drive to secure approval for its $39 billion bid for PotashCorp.

* Hungary is open to acquiring a 21.2% stake in Mol from Surgutneftegaz, the secretive Russian group, to solve a long-running dispute over foreign involvement in the Hungarian oil and gas group.

* Genzyme launched a full-throated defence against Sanofi-Aventis’s hostile bid, telling an investor conference that the $18.5 billion offer ignored a recovery at its manufacturing plants and a strong drug pipeline that would together drive substantial earnings growth by 2013.

The Lex Column