Ford’s soon-to-be-signed sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors could bring in as much as $2.65 billion, according to local TV, or $2 billion according to the FT. Though the stage appears to be set, a Tata Group spokesman told Reuters discussions were ongoing. Tata Motors, India’s top vehicle maker maker of trucks and busses, received union backing for the deal and was named the front-runner in January by Ford, which is seeking to shore up its balance sheet and reduce debt.

JPMorgan’s revised takeover offer for Bear Stearns is a “high risk transaction,” Punk Ziegel analyst Richard Bove said after JPMorgan boosted its all-stock offer five-fold to about $10 a share. “What is most disturbing about this deal is that it uses a great deal of Morgan capital to buy a company that is losing market share, in a series of businesses that are declining in size, with a top management team that is best described as sclerotic,” the veteran bank watcher wrote in a note to clients. “Investors believe that JPMorgan is underbidding for Bear Stearns… I do not. … Bear Stearns is a deeply troubled company which would have no value if the Federal Reserve had not stepped in to bail it out.”

China’s state-owned aluminum giant Chinalco - which teamed up last month with Alcoa to buy a $14 billion stake in Rio Tinto - may spend more than $4 billion this year on acquisitions at home and abroad, according to the South China Morning Post. That’s no great pile of investment. BHP has bid $147 billion for Rio. Though the company did not specify targets, it said non-ferrous metals would be the main focus.

Top Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp said it was in advanced talks to sell shares to a strategic investor, sparking a 16 percent surge in its shares. The news comes one year after media reports that the company hired two investment banks to find a strategic partner in a search that ultimately failed to win a suitor. SMIC’s market capitalization is around $1.1 billion.

Singapore state investor Temasek is close to selling its 42 percent stake in Bank Internasional Indonesia for over $1 billion, but not to HSBC. Europe’s biggest bank dropped out of the race, leaving Malayan Banking, Bank of China and late entrant Kookmin of South Korea to duke it out.