The Financial Times reports on three big deals that might be in the making:
Hai’er wants to Hoover up Maytag
Excerpt:
A special committee of board members at Maytag, the US white goods maker, on Monday accepted an indication of interest from a consortium of potential bidders which included Haier, the Chinese appliance maker, and US private equity groups Bain Capital and Blackstone.
The move could spark a bidding war with Ripplewood, the US private equity group run by Tim Collins that last month agreed to purchase Maytag, the Iowa-based manufacturer of the iconic Hoover vacuum, for $2.1bn in cash and debt, or $14 per share.
CNOOC poised to make Unocal offer
Excerpt:
China National Offshore Oil Corporation is this week poised to trump Chevron’s $16.7bn bid for fellow US oil group Unocal.
UBS in talks to buy Bank of China stake
Excerpt:
UBS is in talks to buy a multi-million dollar stake in Bank of China, the country’s third-largest lender, in a move that could increase the Swiss group’s chances of winning a coveted advisory mandate for BoC’s US$3bn-US$4bn overseas listing.
UBS and other foreign rivals will begin “pitching” to win a role on one of Asia’s highest-profile deals of the past few years on Tuesday.
News of the Swiss bank’s talks with BoC come weeks after Citigroup was stripped of its underwriting mandate on the US$5bn listing of China Construction Bank amid accusations it had reneged on a pledge to become an investor.
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