Thursday Papers: BHP turns hostile with $39bn Potash bid - bid news and gossip

Financial Times

* BHP Billiton launched a hostile bid for PotashCorp on Wednesday as the mining company took its $39bn offer directly to shareholders; analysts and investors expect the bid to rise.

* Terra Firma and Citigroup will go to mediation in New York next month to break the deadlock over the private equity group’s troubled £4.2bn takeover of EMI.

* Blackstone expects to invest up to nearly $4bn in India over the next five years; in its latest deal, the group is to invest $300m in exchange for a “significant” minority stake in Moser Baer Projects Private.

* Shares in F&C Asset Management rose further on Wednesday after a vehicle controlled by the activist investor Edward Bramson made a second large purchase of its shares in as many days.

* EFG-Hermes, a leading Middle East investment bank, announced on Tuesday it had bought a 65 per cent stake in Credit Libanais, a privately owned Lebanese lender, for $542m.

* Stanley Druckenmiller, the hedge fund manager who made the bet that helped George Soros “break the pound”, announced his retirement on Wednesday, saying he was disappointed in his performance during this year’s market volatility.

* The UK Listing Authority has loosened rules on reverse takeovers; it has eased requirements on financial data that a listed company must provide on a target in order to avoid suspension of the acquirer’s shares.

* ENRC, the London-listed Kazakh miner, plans to expand its reach in Africa.

* Goldman Sachs has filed a claim against Natixis over credit default swaps.

* Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group seeks to buy stake in Icex.

The Daily Telegraph