Mergers and acquisitions
The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Wednesday:** Convenience food manufacturer Greencore GNC.L agreed to buy rival Bakkavor BAKK.L in a deal valued at 1.2 billion pounds ($1.55 billion), to create a convenience foods giant in Britain.** Rupert Murdoch's News Corp NWSA.O said it completed the sale of its Australian cable-TV business, Foxtel, to British-owned sports network DAZN in a A$3.4 billion ($2.14 billion) deal.** Polish medical diagnostics group Diagnostyka DIAP.WA said it had acquired a 51% stake in Eurodiagnostic, a company that manages mobile computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR) and X-ray laboratories.** Denmark's A.P. Moller Holding (APMH) said it has made a cash offer of 9 billion Danish crowns ($1.30 billion) for towage and marine service provider Svitzer SVITZR.CO, a 31.7% premium to Tuesday's closing share price in Copenhagen. ** ConocoPhillips is exploring the sale of oil and gas assets in Oklahoma that it inherited from its $22.5 billion takeover of Marathon Oil last year, people familiar with the matter said. ** French oil major TotalEnergies has signed agreements with RES, the world's largest independent renewables firm, to acquire nearly one gigawatt's worth of its wind and solar projects in Canada, it said on Wednesday. ** Marsh McLennan Agency has acquired West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Arthur Hall Insurance, which specialises in life sciences, information management, non-profit, craft beverage manufacturing and municipal industries. ** French engine and aircraft equipment maker Safran is set to secure conditional EU antitrust approval for its $1.8 billion bid for Collins Aerospace's flight controls business, people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday. ** Amazon.com has put in a last-minute bid to buy TikTok, a U.S. administration official said on Wednesday, just days ahead of an April 5 deadline for the short-form video app to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the country.** Mexican bank Grupo Financiero Inbursa said it will sell a 49.9% stake in its automotive finance unit STM Financial to Fidis, a subsidiary of car manufacturer Stellantis. ** Credit Agricole got the all clear to take a bigger stake in Italy's Banco BPM , posing a hurdle to UniCredit which said on Wednesday it would launch its 14 billion euro ($15 billion) tender offer for BPM on April 28. ** A startup run by Tim Stokely, founder of adult content social media site OnlyFans, has partnered with a cryptocurrency foundation to submit a late-stage plan to acquire short video app TikTok from Chinese owner ByteDance, the two said on Wednesday ** Siemens AG said on Wednesday it will acquire U.S.-based Dotmatics for $5.1 billion from Insight Partners. ** Shares in Spanish pharmaceutical company Grifols rose on Wednesday after Canadian fund Brookfield said it was talking with shareholders, following a report from website El Confidencial that it was considering a new takeover attempt.