DealZone

Japan’s Toshiba Corp (6502.T) is lining up a bid for French nuclear group Areva’s (CEPFi.PA) power grid that could be worth over $5 billion according to Reuters sources.

The private banking assets of Dutch bank ING (ING.AS) are the subject of up to five bids which may reach $2 billion, sources familiar with the deal said. Swiss firm Julius Baer (BAER.VX) and Singapore’s DBS (DBSM.SI) have been identified to Reuters as definite bidders in the process.

For more from Reuters on the latest deals, click here.

Below is a round-up of all the market chatter from the press on Friday:

* AIG (AIG.N) will likely now announce the buyer of its Taiwan Nan Shan Life unit at the end of September instead of on Friday, Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times reported, after potential buyers bid below the $2 billion the insurer had hoped for.  

* UK specialist insurer Pension Corporation is eyeing a third capital-raising round of up to 400 million pounds ($652.7 million) from new and existing investors, the Financial Times reported.

* French carmaker Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) is mulling an alliance with Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T), French daily La Tribune reports.

* Prudential Financial Inc (PRU.N) put its South Korean brokerage unit up for sale in a deal worth up to $800 million as part of the U.S. group’s restructuring, the Maeil Business Newspaper reported.

* Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) is in talks to buy a unit of Mesirow Financial in a bid to expand in the hedge fund industry, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the deal.

* Montreal’s La Presse daily newspaper, the biggest French-language broadsheet in North America, is threatening to cease publication on Dec. 1, the Canadian Press reported.