Wednesday Papers: Evolution drops Panmure bid - tips, comment and bids

(Updated with Telegraph share tips)

Financial Times

* Evolution Group has decided against bidding for smaller rival Panmure Gordon after its indicative proposal was rejected.

* Shares in Blacks Leisure jumped almost 25% to their highest level since July after the outdoor wear retailer said it was in bid discussions with “several parties” regarding a sale or takeover.

* Alliance Boots plans to take full control of Anzag, one of Germany’s three top medicine wholesalers, in a €26 a share deal that values the company at €278 million.

* The Canadian province of Saskatchewan is at odds with BHP Billiton over the Australian miner’s $39 billion hostile offer for PotashCorp, raising the prospect that the deal might be rejected by the federal government.

* Guy Hands’ Terra Firma private equity group would not have bid for EMI in a 2007 auction had it not been for the alleged advice of a Citigroup banker, the financier told a New York court on Tuesday.

* UBS added Premier Oil and Heritage Oil to its watchlist of British takeover targets yesterday, saying that a wave of mergers and acquisitions was building in Europe.

* The value of cross-border mergers and acquisitions of UK-based companies so far this year has exceeded domestic-led deals for the first time; UK inbound cross-border M&A hit $84.4 billion in the year to date, outstripping the domestic-led dealmaking volume of $61.6 billion.

The Lex Column

* China rolls out inflation big guns - People’s Bank risks cooling passions at home but inflaming them overseas.

* Brazil - The government could turn to reducing its own demand for funds.