Tuesday Papers: HP locks horns with Dell over data group - bid news and gossip

Financial Times

* Hewlett-Packard on Monday squared up to long-time computer rival Dell with a $1.6bn counterbid for data storage company 3Par; HP executives said they had been pursuing 3Par before Dell agreed to buy it a week ago for $1.15bn.

* PotashCorp, the fertiliser producer that is the target of a $39bn hostile takeover by BHP Billiton, on Monday revealed it was talking to “a large universe” of potential counter-bidders as it seeks to derail the mining group’s cash offer.

* Chi-X Europe, the pan-European share trading platform, said on Monday it had received an approach that could lead to an offer being made for the company.

*  TPG on Monday said it planned to start raising its debut renminbi fund later this year with a Rmb5bn ($735m) target in a partnership with the local government of Shanghai’s Pudong district.

* HSBC has about two months to come up with a concrete offer for a controlling stake in Nedbank, South Africa’s fourth-largest bank.

* South Korea’s National Pension Service, the world’s fourth-largest pension fund, is seeking to buy a 23.44% stake in Colonial Pipeline, a US pipeline operator, from Chevron for about Won1,000bn ($847m).

* A €300m ($380m) fund set up to provide equity for undercapitalised German companies has still to make its first investment six months after it was announced by Deutsche Bank as a way to stave off a credit crunch for Europe’s biggest economy.

* Private placement deals – whereby companies tap investors directly for loans – are on track for one of their strongest years; companies tapped the market for $27.4bn in the first half of the year, only just shy of the $28.5bn raised in the whole of 2009, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

* Robert Swannell, the investment banker who helped defend Marks and Spencer against a bid from Sir Philip Green in 2004, has been confirmed as the high street retailer’s next chairman.

The Daily Telegraph

* Vedanta Resources' planned acquisition of Cairn India may be scuppered by a bid from India's state fuel companies, according to new reports.