The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Friday:
** Private equity firm Sun Capital Partners is exploring the sale of Emerald Performance Materials, a specialty chemicals company that could be worth more than $700 million, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
** U.S.-insurer New York Life is in exclusive negotiations with Yuanta Financial to sell its Taiwan assets, two sources with close knowledge of the deal told Reuters on Friday.
** Sempra Energy has signed up Japanese and French partners to back a liquefied natural gas export plant in Louisiana that will cost up to $10 billion, with construction expected to start next year, Sempra said on Thursday.
Under the 20-year agreements, all the LNG will be bought under three separate 4 million-ton-per-year deals by Mitsui & Co Ltd, Mitsubishi Corp via Nippon Yusen KK and France's GDF Suez SA.
** Caterpillar Inc has reached a deal to cut $135 million from the price owed for a Chinese mining equipment maker, after accounting irregularities were discovered at the acquired company that forced Caterpillar to take a $580 million impairment charge.
** Dish Network Corp asked U.S. regulators on Thursday to stop reviewing SoftBank Corp's proposed acquisition of Sprint Nextel Corp's, citing the Japanese company's reported attempt to thwart its bid for the U.S. wireless carrier.
** Gildemeister said an Austrian competition authority announcement stating Mori Seiki was seeking sole control over the German machine tool maker referred to Mori Seiki's plan to take just close to a quarter of its shares.
** Slovenian firms and banks want higher bids for their joint 53 percent stake in the country's largest food retailer Mercator, the largest shareholder Pivovarna Lasko said.
** U.S. telecoms services company Syniverse Technologies is set to win EU antitrust approval for its 550 million-euro ($710 million) takeover of Mach after agreeing to divest a big chunk of its rival's operations, sources said on Friday.
_0"> _1">** British healthcare property owner Assura Group said on Friday it had received a takeover approach from rival MedicX Fund, sending its shares higher.
_2"> _3">** Morgans Hotel Group Co, in the midst of a proxy battle and facing investor opposition to a deal with Ron Burkle-controlled Yucaipa Companies, said it had rejected two takeover bids from a large international hotel company in the past six months.
_4"> _5">** U.S. generic drugmaker Actavis, the subject of intense takeover speculation, may have found its best defense: a potential purchase of Warner Chilcott Plc, a specialty pharmaceutical company that has been for sale on and off for years.
_6"> _7">** The board of miner ENRC has rejected a $2.4 billion tentative offer from its founding investors and the Kazakh government for the shares they do not already own, giving them two weeks to come up with an improved bid.
_8"> _9">** Industrial and financial investors are in talks to buy a stake in Camfin, a holding company that controls tyremaker Pirelli, key investor Marco Tronchetti Provera said on Friday.
_10"> _11">** Sanyo Electric Co may cease to exist under a reorganization by Panasonic Corp that includes global jobs cuts, Nikkei reported on Friday.
_12"> _13">** An activist hedge fund has urged Swedish oil and gas company Petrogrand AB to drop exploration activities in Russia, explore strategic alternatives and replace its chief executive, according to a letter from the fund to the company's board of directors.
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