Tuesday Papers: Elevation Partners acquires additional 5m shares in Facebook - bid news and gossip

Financial Times

* Elevation Partners, the private equity firm, has acquired an additional 5m shares of Facebook for $120m.

* Raven Russia, the Aim-listed real estate company, plans to move to the main market of the London Stock Exchange in a bid to expand its overseas investor base.

* Portugal Telecom’s shareholders will on Wednesday vote on Telefónica’s €6.5bn offer to buy the Portuguese telecoms company.

* Avista Capital Partners, the US buy-out house, unveils the opening of its first overseas office in London.

* Agricultural Bank of China, which hopes to raise as much as $23bn in the world’s biggest initial public offering, has been forced by the weak mainland stock market to offer its shares at a lower price range in Shanghai than in Hong Kong.

* Foxconn is preparing to shift part of its production of Apple gadgets from Shenzhen to north and central China to cut costs.

The Times

* Regal Petroleum plunged 10½p, or nearly 29 per cent, to 26p on confirmation from Regal of receipt of an order to suspend operations there.

* Takeovers backed by private equity in Britain are running far ahead of last year’s totals, despite a decline in activity in the second quarter, a report said; the Centre for Management Buyout Research at Nottingham University said that 87 takeovers worth £7.9 billion were completed in the first half of the year.

* Banco do Brasil, Latin America’s largest bank, expects to raise up to 10.9 billion reais (£4 billion) in a share offering this week.

* A joint venture including the Galliford Try and Galliford Try has won a five-year deal for special projects — worth up to £90 million — from Anglian Water.