LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) – A hedge fund trader among seven
men arrested as part of Britain’s biggest swoop on an insider
trading ring said he was innocent on Friday as the probe shone
an unwelcome light on several banks and listed companies.

Britain’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Serious
Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) made the arrests this week on
suspicion of involvement in a long-running and sophisticated
insider-dealing ring. [ID:nLDE62N1WU]

LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom <DTEGn.DE> has
appointed Citigroup <C.N> as its corporate broker, in a rare
example of a non-UK company adopting the British model of naming
trusted bankers to liaise with big investors.

If more big European groups follow the German telephone
company’s lead, it could open up a new field in the hotly
contested fight among London banks for corporate broking roles.

LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) – One of Britain’s most
influential investor groups said it did not endorse a proposal
by Business Secretary Peter Mandelson to make UK takeovers
tougher by requiring approval by a two-thirds “super-majority”.

But the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said its
members supported several other proposals, including increasing
disclosure of who owns shares during takeover battles.
Kraft’s <KFT.N> hostile-turned-friendly takeover of Cadbury
has sparked debate about Britain’s long-standing openness to
takeovers and whether businesses and investors take a
sufficiently “long-term” view.

LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) – British waste manager Biffa
[WSAQTB.UL] has started the process to sell a unit that
generates power from landfill gas by sending information to
prospective buyers, people familiar with the matter said.

The business turns methane gas emitted from rotting rubbish
at dozens of landfill sites across Britain into a power source
that can last for up to three decades.

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) – Two top ten shareholders in
Arriva Plc <ARI.L> said suitor Deutsche Bahn AG [DBN.UL] should
offer considerably more than Arriva’s current share price to
reflect the strategic value of the British transport group.

Deutsche Bahn revealed the preliminary takeover approach
earlier this week, after market talk of a 700-pence-a-share bid,
but neither it nor Arriva disclosed an offer price.

LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) – Devices for the hard of hearing
shouldn’t be a hard sell for investors: greying populations,
cacophonous modern life, and the advent of sleeker machines to
win image-conscious converts should all make for big profits.

But private equity firms have balked at the hearing-aid
business Siemens AG <SIEGn.DE> has just tried to offload — even
though a disposal made plenty of sense for the German industrial
giant. [ID:nLDE62E23A]

LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) – Montagu Private Equity agreed
to sell French medical diagnostics business Sebia to rival
Cinven [CINV.UL], the latest in a series of buyouts focused in
niche areas of healthcare.

The deal announced on Monday values Sebia at about 800
million euros including debt, 12.5 times its 2009 earnings,
sources familiar with the situation said. It gives Montagu a
three-times return on its original equity investment.

LONDON (Reuters) – A bold plan to combine Germany’s Ratiopharm and Iceland’s Actavis, two of the world’s biggest generic drugmakers, could cure a multi billion-euro debt headache for Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE>, Actavis’s main creditor.

Actavis is vying with Pfizer Inc <PFE.N> and Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries <TEVA.TA> in the 3 billion-euro auction of Ratiopharm, which is being sold by the family of late German billionaire Adolf Merckle to repay creditors, sources familiar with the situation say.

LONDON (Reuters) – Prudential’s <PRU.L> $35.5 billion bet on Asia is a rare bit of good news for Europe’s dealmakers, who have seen a recovery this year in U.S. and emerging-market mergers and acquisitions pass them by.

The lag reflects markets rattled by Europe’s slower path to recovery and fears about sovereign creditworthiness, provoked by Greece’s difficulties.