** Expect a record 2007 on the M&A front, even with credit evaporating and markets volatile. Data from Thomson shows global deal volumes in the third quarter rose 17 percent to $884 billion. Corporates came to the rescue as buyout firms fled. Miner Rio Tinto’s bid for rival Alcan (execs pictured left) and Qatari investment firm Delta Two’s offer for UK retailer Sainsbury, valued by Thomson respectively at $43 billion and $19 billion, helped keep third-quarter M&A on an upward trend, while the volume of assets acquired by buyout firms fell by 66 percent in the quarter.
    
** Weak financial results at audio equipment maker Harman have helped to sour private equity interest in completing the $8 billion buyout of the company, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter. KKR and Goldman Sachs Group’s private equity arm agreed in April to buy Harman. The sources said tough credit conditions were also making the deal hard to complete. 
    
** General Electric has offered 4 billion euros ($5.6 billion) to buy the property assets which Spanish bank Santander is selling to fund its bid for parts of Dutch bank ABN AMRO, according to newspaper reports. A source familiar with the process said bidders had until Friday to make binding offers for some or all of the property and that a deal should be completed within a month. 
    
** New Zealand casino operator Sky City Entertainment said it had been approached over a possible takeover, sending its shares surging to a record high and valuing the company at as much as $1.8 billion. Sky City said it had received an indicative approach from a party it did not name, expressing an interest in acquiring the company at a significant premium to its previous share price. Sky City has a virtual monopoly in casinos in New Zealand because of a ban on any new licenses
       
** Credit may be tight all over Wall Street, but at least employees at Goldman Sachs are enjoying their standard Midas treatment. Bloomberg reports Wall Street’s most profitable securities firm set aside $16.9 billion to pay salaries, benefits and bonuses in the first nine months of the year, topping the record amount for all of last year. 
 
** “Material Adverse Change”, the legalese addendum once given little consideration in deal paperwork has become “more than arcane legal language in a deal agreement”, the WSJ’s Deal Journal writes, noting that while deal lawyers don’t expect buyers to find much relief — they certainly haven’t so far — there are courts that have yet to hear the arguments.

(Photo: Reuters File)