Fresh capital from wealth fund Temasek Holdings may do plenty to clean up Merrill Lynch’s balance sheet, and has the potential to boost the Singapore wealth fund’s stake in the struggling investment behemoth to 15 percent. That could be an uncomfortable level for U.S. politicians, and breaches a previously informal agreement to refrain from owning more than 10 percent of Merrill, according to a source familiar with the fund. A Temasek spokeswoman said on Tuesday that a portion of the deal is subject to regulatory approval. Citigroup is the other big U.S. bank to have gone to foreign wealth funds for big buckets of bail-out funding. If it ends up having to take more CDO-related write-downs to match the new bargain basement price one assumes Temasek is paying for its new stock of Merrill shares (they aren’t saying what the price might be) this whole thing could turn very political just as the race for the White House enters the final stretch.

British Airways says it is in talks with Spanish carrier Iberia about a potential all-share merger, sending shares in the UK airline up nearly 9 percent. Britain’s flagship carrier said in a statement the discussions had the support of both companies, although it expected it would take several months before terms could be agreed. BA’s chief executive, Willie Walsh, said the move made sense in current market conditions. BA owns 13.15 percent of the Spanish carrier, while Iberia has taken a 2.99 percent direct stake in BA, on top of exposure to a further 6.99 percent through contracts for differences linked to the BA share price. BA said both parties were confident of securing regulatory approval, adding that the European Union had already allowed the duo to cooperate widely.

Other deals of the day:

* Japanese TV and media group Tokyo Broadcasting System said it would spend $195 million to buy a majority stake in retailer StylingLife Holdings from Citigroup’s merchant banking unit in Japan.

* Central European Media Enterprises has bought an 80 percent stake in two Bulgarian television stations for $172 million, expanding its reach in eastern Europe, the company said.

* Kumho Tires is seeking investors to take over a $109 million stake in itself that U.S.-based Cooper Tire & Rubber plans to sell, an official at the South Korean company said.

* Autoliv, the world’s biggest maker of air bags and seat belts, said it had agreed to buy the automotive radar sensors business of Tyco Electronics for $42 million.

* IT and engineering services firm Rolta India said it acquired Chicago-based WhittmanHart Consulting, a division of WhittmanHart Inc.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts’s plan to IPO is nothing new - the company filed its paperwork to do so a year ago. So why should the storied firm of private equity titan Henry Kravis (pictured) choose now to tap this battered market? Problems at its Amsterdam-listed fund are also hardly new. Shares of the fund, set to be exchanged for new NYSE-listed KKR shares as part of the offering, jumped 27 percent during morning trade. They had fallen about 30 percent since the beginning of May, and had lost more than half their value since late February last year as the credit crisis bit. It’s hard to see the deal framed as a statement of confidence that IPO investors are going to step up to the bar, given all the grim news swirling capital markets. What else might be prompting this move? Carlyle Capital Corp, an affiliate of U.S.-based buyout firm Carlyle Group and mainly invested in mortgage-backed assets, went bankrupt in March and liquidated its assets as it could not meet margin calls from its lenders. KPE said in March it had no exposure to residential real estate loans, but its net asset value dropped 3.4 percent in the second quarter amid investment losses and foreign currency transactions after a 5.4 percent drop in net assets from operations in the first quarter.

Consumer goods giant Unilever agreed to sell its North American laundry business to private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners for about $1.45 billion to complete the bulk of its sell-off program. The business makes Snuggle, Wisk and Surf products and had been looking to sell it for almost a year in its struggle to compete as a distant No. 2 behind archrival Procter and Gamble. Vestar intends to fold the business into its Huish Detergents operations and re-name it Sun Products Corp.

Other deals of the day:

* Britain’s BAE Systems said it had made a recommended offer for Detica Group, a provider of IT services to the national security sector, at 440 pence a share, valuing the business at about 538 million pounds ($1.07 billion) including assumed debt.

* French electrical engineering group Schneider Electric has agreed to buy Canada’s Xantrex for 415 million Canadian dollars ($409.3 million) to boost its renewable energy equipment operations.

* U.S. computer services and software group International Business Machines has agreed to buy French software maker Ilog for 215 million euros ($340 million), the companies said.

* Greek buyout firm Marfin Investment Group bought a 50 percent stake in Croatian tourism group Sunce Koncen as part of its expansion plans, MIG said in a statement.

* China’s Sichuan New Hope Agribusiness said it has acquired a dairy producer in Inner Mongolia in a deal that a Chinese newspaper said was worth 100 million yuan ($14.7 million).

* LUKOIL, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, has acquired 100 percent of Turkish firm Akpet, which accounts for about 5 percent of Turkey’s oil retail market, the company said.

GM has had a rough few weeks, with its share price racing down hill and increasingly frequent questions about solvency. So we note with interest the second sign in two days that the auto giant is looking to pump up its position in higher growth markets abroad. Russian car maker GAZ said today it plans to create a $1 billion joint venture with GM. The director of GAZ’s light vehicles unit, Leonid Dolgov, said the venture will produce around 300,000 cars per year, allowing the partners to compete with French rival Renault in Russia, Europe’s largest car market. Yesterday, a source told us Chinese pickup truck maker Hebei Zhongxing Automobile was in talks with GM and major Chinese automaker FAW Group to explore opportunities for cooperation, including possible equity ties. The source gave no specifics about Zhongxing’s discussions with GM, which runs two ventures with China’s top automaker, SAIC Motor, making cars and minivans. These are hardly high-gear moves, but could amount to welcome pay-offs if things in the U.S. continue to stall.

U.S. investment bank JP Morgan has held talks with potential partners about forming a consortium to break up British mortgage lender HBOS, The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. National Australia Bank, named by the Telegraph as a potentially interested party, played down the report, while a UK industry source said HBOS had not received an approach. “We’re not sure this is a clever time to make acquisitions,” NAB Chief Executive John Stewart told reporters on Friday, shortly after NAB announced a further A$830 million ($798 million) in losses from its exposure to U.S. mortgages. Without naming a source, the Telegraph said JP Morgan had also approached private equity firms and may talk to Spain’s Banco Santander about a deal that would resemble the break up of ABN AMRO by a group of three banks last year.

The chief of U.S. hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners, the largest shareholder of Cleveland-Cliffs, has begun pushing the iron ore pellet maker to put itself up for sale, The Wall Street Journal said. Phil Falcone, who wants Cleveland-Cliffs to take advantage of the steel boom, reckons the company could fetch as much as $130 a share, or about $14 billion, the paper said, citing a person close to Harbinger. The move comes a week after Cleveland-Cliffs said it agreed to acquire coal miner Alpha Natural Resources for about $8.3 billion to expand its coal assets and capitalize on the boom in the global steel industry. In a regulatory filing made after the deal announcement, Harbinger Capital, which owns about 18.36 percent of Cleveland-Cliffs common stock, expressed concerns about whether the Alpha deal was in the best interests of shareholders.

Other deals of the day:

* Korea Development Bank, Hana Bank and Kookmin Bank are providing a $400 million bridging loan for LS Cable Ltd’s acquisition of Nasdaq-listed wire and cable maker Superior Essex, banking sources said.

* Daimler, the world’s biggest maker of commercial vehicles, plans to spend billions of dollars to take a stake in Russian truckmaker Kamaz, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.

* Nuclear operator British Energy has agreed to be taken over by French utility Electricite de France for around 775 pence per share, a source briefed on the matter said.

* Chinese state-owned commodities trading house Sinosteel has extended its offer for shares in Australian iron ore prospector Midwest Corp by a month to Aug. 25, it said in a regulatory filing.

* U.S. hedge fund Harbinger plans to bid for British satellite communication firm Inmarsat, pending regulatory approval, and combine the group with its SkyTerra business.

* French retailer Casino said it had raised its stake in Brazil’s CBD to 35.3 percent from 32.9 percent after it acquired 5.6 million voting shares at 22.9 Brazilian real ($14.52) per share.

* French IT consulting group Capgemini said it had agreed to buy Dutch IT services group Getronics PinkRoccade’s (GPR) Business Application Services BV (BAS) unit in the Netherlands.

General Electric has bulked up on its health binge, moving to buy medical device maker Vital Signs for $860 million. Vital Signs shareholders are to get $74.50 per share in cash, a 28.4 percent premium to Wednesday’s closing price, and above the shares’ 52-week high of $61.20, reached on May 9. GE said the deal, which it expects to close in the fourth quarter, values Vital Signs at $860 million, net of cash and investments. It said that shareholders with a 37 percent stake in Vital Signs have agreed to vote in favor of the deal.

Chinese pickup truck maker Hebei Zhongxing Automobile Co is in talks with General Motors and major Chinese automaker FAW Group to explore opportunities for cooperation, including possible equity ties, a source close to the situation said. “Consolidation is inevitable in the Chinese auto market, which now has more than 100 players, and a company of Zhongxing’s size makes a good takeover target or joint venture partner,” the source told Reuters. “Zhongxing is holding talks with several potential partners including FAW and GM to seek cooperative opportunities, including possible equity ties, but nothing has been decided at the moment,” a source said.

Tribune has narrowed the potential list of bidders for the storied Chicago Cubs baseball team to 3-5 groups bidding $1 billion or more, according to sources briefed on the matter. Of the 10 groups approved to bid for the Cubs by Major League Baseball, only those that bid $1 billion or more for the team, its home ballpark Wrigley Field and a stake in a regional sports TV network advanced to the next round, said two sources, who asked not to be identified because the process is ongoing. While Tribune and baseball officials declined to comment, three sources said Internet billionaire Mark Cuban, owner of the National Basketball Association Dallas Mavericks; and a publicly held group led by New York City taxi tycoon Andrew Murstein were among those advancing. Others advancing included Tom Ricketts, chief executive of Incapital LLC, a Chicago securities and investment banking firm, and son of the founder of TD Ameritrade; and a group headed by Michael Tokarz, chairman of MVC Capital, one of the sources said. The Tokarz group includes Fred Malek, who previously bid on the baseball team in Washington.

Other deals of the day:

* The head of state-run Korea Development Bank said it would resume the delayed sale of Daewoo Shipbuilding in August, possibly wrapping up the $4 billion deal by end-2008.

* South Korea’s Hana Financial Group, the country’s No.4 banking group, said its banking unit would invest 329.6 billion won ($327 million) to take a 19.7 percent stake in the Bank of Jilin in China.

* Malaysia’s Maybank is set to buy another 5 percent of Pakistan’s MCB Bank as early as next month, in a deal estimated at $218 million, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

* Intel Capital, the venture capital arm of top chipmaker Intel Corp, said it would pump $17 million into three Indian companies, comprising two Internet portals and one advertising firm.

* Mapletree Investments, a property firm owned by Singapore state investor Temasek, said it will support a rights issue by Mapletree Logistics Trust by buying units not taken up by other investors.

The cheap dollar is helping to tease more investment out of a notoriously shy foreign investment pool - Japan’s insurance industry. In what would be the largest acquisition by a Japanese financial firm in the U.S., Tokio Marine said it plans to buy non-life insurer Philadelphia Consolidated Holding Corp for about $4.7 billion. Tokio Marine is Japan’s largest non-life insurer, and has offered a 73 percent premium to Philadelphia Consolidated investors. Meanwhile, Nippon Life Insurance said it would take a 5 percent stake in U.S. fund and index group Russell Investments. Over the past year, the dollar is down more than 10 percent against the yen, though it is well off lows hit in early March. Japanese insurers, which earn 80 percent of their profit at home, have long been under pressure to diversify abroad to deal with an aging population and slow growth at home.

Shares in British lender HBOS rose more than 12 percent, lifted by market talk of bid interest from Spanish rival BBVA and a broad recovery across the financial sector, traders said. Britain’s largest mortgage lender has underperformed the battered sector in the run-up to its 4 billion pound ($8 billion) rights issue, and concerns about the overhang effect have also weighed, as just 8.3 percent of the shares were taken up. A deal to take on HBOS would be a radical departure for BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank, which has focused its expansion on emerging markets in Latin America and China and in the southern United States.

Other deals of the day:

* British energy company Centrica is doubling its interest in Belgian generation and supply company SPE SA to 51 percent for 515 million euros ($820 million), overturning a deal by France’s EDF to buy the stake.

* Brazil’s Oi Participacoes bought 947 million reais ($599 million) worth of preferential shares in Brasil Telecom as part of its takeover of the No. 3 telecommunications player, the BM&F Bovespa stock exchange said.

* Thai PTT Chemical said it had agreed to buy a 50 percent stake in a Malaysian oleochemicals firm from German chemicals maker Cognis for 104 million euros ($164 million).

* GlaxoSmithKline, the world’s second largest drugmaker, took a step into the branded generics marketplace via an alliance with South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare Holdings.

* The head of KT Corp, South Korea’s top fixed-line and broadband firm, has said full integration with its mobile service unit KTF Co would be “desirable”, a KT spokesman said.

* China’s central government and the Shanghai city government are discussing merging Shanghai Airlines with China Eastern Airlines, major Chinese business magazine Caijing reported on its website on Wednesday.

While credit problems plague private equity buyouts and other corners of the M&A world, we’ve seen plenty of strategic deals going through and the Biotech sector is starting to look downright buoyant. Roche’s $43.7 billion bid to buy out the remainder of Genentech is set to be the largest biotechnology acquisition ever and comes on the heels of a spate of big-ticket purchases. Industry analysts expect more to follow. “Just about every major drug company you talk to says they are devoting a much higher proportion of their own research and investment in stuff they are buying to biotech,” said Paul Diggle, an analyst at Nomura Code. “I suspect Amgen and Genzyme will be the two companies people think about next.” Big biotech deals over the recent past include Takeda Pharmaceutical’s agreement to buy Millennium Pharmaceuticals for $8.8 billion, AstraZeneca’s purchase of MedImmune last year for $15.6 billion, Novartis’s purchase of Speedel for about $880 million and GlaxoSmithKline’s record $3.3 billion insomnia drug licensing deal with Actelion.

Senior Goldman Sachs investment banker Ken Wilson will take a leave of absence to advise U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on the nation’s banking crisis, people familiar with the matter said, while The Deal hinted the position may be less temporary. Wilson is a vice chairman of investment banking and chairman of financial institutions business at Goldman, where Paulson was CEO until 2006. Wilson has played a key role advising banks on capital raising and reorganizations. He is expected to help address the crisis gripping banks, Wall Street firms and mortgage lenders, the sources said. He is expected to serve without pay through January, when President George Bush’s second term ends.

Other deals of the day:

* British fund manager F&C Asset Management announced a tie-up that will create a UK-owned business with 8.5 billion pounds ($17 billion) of property assets under management.

* Singapore’s Neptune Orient Lines has formally expressed interest in buying German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd, estimated to be worth over $7 billion, sources briefed on the deal said.

* Japan’s Nippon Life Insurance plans to invest about 30 billion yen ($282 million) in Russell Investments and form a business alliance with the U.S. investment and index group, sources familiar with the matter said.

* Datacraft Asia said its South African parent Dimension Data plans to privatize Southeast Asia’s largest computer network builder by buying the remaining shares in it for $276 million.

* Private equity firm Segulah said it would make a cash offer worth 1.62 billion crowns ($272 million) for Swedish industry group Gunnebo Industrier.

* Roche Holding said it has acquired Mirus Bio Corp, a privately held U.S. company that focuses on RNAi or gene silencing as a way to fight disease, for $125 million.

* U.S. computer giant International Business Machines sold $77.3 million worth of shares in top Chinese PC maker Lenovo at the bottom of a range, a source said.

* British driving services firm Trafficmaster has agreed to acquire vehicle tracking company Tri-Mex Group for up to 4.75 million pounds ($9.49 million).

* Shares in China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp jumped as much as 16 percent on a news report that the Datang Telecom group may buy a 20 percent stake in SMIC, the nation’s biggest contract chip maker.

* A plan by Qatar Telecom to buy the remaining shares in Indonesia’s PT Indosat Tbk will be blocked by a regulation limiting foreign ownership to 49 percent, officials said.

* India’s Tata Capital and Mizuho Corporate Bank said they had signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic alliance for a range of activities in the financial services sector.

* A unit of the Qatar Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund, said it was dropping a proposed offer for a stake in Monaco casino and hotel group Societe des Bains de Mer due to management opposition.

U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch accepted a hopped-up $52 billion takeover bid from Belgium-based InBev. InBev agreed to pay $70 per share for the maker of Budweiser, up from its original unsolicited bid of $65 per share, both companies said on Monday. The improved offer marked a 27 percent premium to Anheuser’s record-high stock price in October 2002. The deal is expected to gain regulatory approval. It would be the largest in the industry and the third-biggest ever foreign takeover of a U.S. company. Now, let the naming begin. While not nearly as bouncy as Microhoo, the union does lend itself to some intriguing combinations. The company seems to be settling on Anheuser-Busch Inbev. ABI Brewing, or ABIB, could suggest beer drinkers need to protect their shirts. The company could certainly be forgiven for seeking something more mouth friendly. Some DealZone suggestions from reporters who have spent far too much time thinking about it: InBusch, AmBusch, InBever-Busch, AmBever, BudBev or BevBud, lending itself to BevBuddies and BuddyBev.

Spain’s Santander is buying British bank Alliance & Leicester for 1.3 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) in an agreed deal that will bulk up its existing UK bank Abbey. Santander, Europe’s second-biggest bank after HSBC, has long been considered a potential buyer of A&L, but has been able to secure a knockdown price after a collapse in its target’s share price in the past year. Santander said it was offering 1 of its shares for every three A&L shares, plus a cash dividend of 18 pence per share. The deal values A&L stock at 317p, compared with a 12-month high of 1,170 pence. A&L shares soared 54 percent to 338 pence by 1000 GMT after Santander confirmed the deal, reflecting the prospect that a takeover battle could ensue.

GlaxoSmithKline could pay Swiss company Actelion up to 3.3 billion Swiss francs ($3.28 billion) to develop a promising insomnia drug in the largest biotech partnering deal. Glaxo, Europe’s biggest drugmaker, beat many of the world’s top pharmaceuticals companies to partner Actelion’s sleeping pill almorexant and the deal sent the Swiss biotech’s stock soaring nearly 10 percent. “The deal terms already allow significant value to be transferred to shareholders,” said Landsbanki Kepler analyst Denise Anderson. Glaxo, which like other big drugmakers is keen to snap up promising new medicines to bolster its pipeline, had been tipped as a likely partner for almorexant, currently in late-stage clinical development. But some analysts had questioned whether it would go for the deal as it has the only other similar drug in clinical development, on hold in mid-stage trials.

Other deals of the day:
* Australian gaming company Tatts Group has said merging parts of its business with rival Tabcorp might make sense, following tougher state controls on their operations.

* An associate of India’s Kotak Mahindra Group has bought 27.76 percent stake in publisher Business Standard that was held by Great Eastern Shipping, the publisher said at the weekend.

* Israeli holding company Koor Industries said it has accumulated 8.97 million shares of Credit Suisse Group for 1.28 billion shekels ($378 million).

* Israel’s Hadera Paper said it agreed to buy 53 percent of Carmel Container Systems for $20.77 million, to bring its stake in the maker of paper-based packaging to 89.3 percent.

* United Capital Corp said its Chief Executive Officer has offered to buy the company for $23 per share in cash.

Companies may look cheap in the newly minted bear market, but Dow Chemical isn’t taking any chances with Rohm and Haas. The $18.8 billion deal at $78 per share is a 74 percent premium to the paint specialist’s closing price of $44.83 on Wednesday. If the deal wasn’t rich enough, buy-in from Omaha oracle Warren Buffett and sovereign wealth fund the Kuwait Investment Authority, in the form of convertible preferred securities for $3 billion and $1 billion, respectively, should drown out any naysayers, though it’s tough to imagine who could challenge the deal. CEO Andrew Liveris is keen to move Dow away from basic chemicals and towards higher margin specialty chemicals. Dow said the deal would be “meaningfully accretive” to earnings in the second year after it closes, with pre-tax synergies expected to be at least $800 million per year.

Novartis plans to buy its research partner, Swiss biotech company Speedel, for about $880 million to speed up development of potential blockbuster blood-pressure drug Tekturna. Speedel shares surged more than 90 percent to the offer price after the latest in a string of big pharma acquisitions of promising start-up drug development companies. Cash-rich major drugmakers have been queuing up to invest in medicines to fill their thinning pipelines — and the biotech sector has been hit by the global downturn in equity markets, fuelling takeover speculation. Shares in Novartis, which is keen to shore up its franchise in treating high blood pressure as its top-selling Diovan faces generic competition when it loses exclusivity in 2012, fell slightly as markets viewed the buy as expensive.

Other deals of the day:

* Canada’s Precision Drilling Trust said it will immediately reapproach U.S. oil driller Grey Wolf with its $10-a-share takeover offer if Grey Wolf’s shareholders vote down a proposed merger with Basic Energy Services.

* Bidders for Rio Tinto’s U.S. coal unit, Energy America, have a deadline of the end of business to lodge interest in the asset, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.

* Opnext, which makes fiber optic network components, said it agreed to buy privately held StrataLight Communications in a cash and stock deal valued at $172 million.

* Residential Capital, the mortgage lending arm of GMAC, said a GMAC affiliate has agreed to acquire its resort finance business.

* Porsche will be one step closer to acquiring majority control of Volkswagen on Sept. 2, when its deal to buy 4.9 pct of that company’s ordinary shares takes effect.

* Keeley Asset Management, which made its name by selecting small and forgotten companies, said that it took an 18 percent stake in beleaguered money manager Pzena Investment Management.

* Index Ventures, Europe’s best-known high-tech venture capital firm, has bought a small stake in technology online publisher Bestofmedia for 22.5 million euros ($35.4 million) to help it fund acquisitions.

* China’s Hangzhou Trust has agreed to sell a 19.9 pct stake to Morgan Stanley for about 200 million yuan ($29.2 million), the Chinese company’s chairman said.

* Canada’s Cameco and Japan’s Mitsubishi said they will jointly acquire Kintyre uranium exploration project in Western Australia from Rio Tinto for $495 million.

* Steel and coal firm Coal of Africa is unaware of a reported 235 pence-a-share bid from the world’s largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal, Coal said.

InBev, seeking to avoid a lengthy courtroom battle in its takeover attempt of Anheuser-Busch, has asked a court to make a summary judgment on its suit over the removal of all 13 Anheuser board directors. Inbev had previously filed a lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court seeking to confirm the right of Anheuser shareholders to remove the entire board without cause, and Anheuser has said it would challenge InBev’s claim. The court of public opinion may move more slowly than the one in Delaware in this case, as politicians weigh in about the potential tragedy of Budweiser becoming a little less American if the Dutch Belgian brewer’s $46.3 billion offer wins.

WPP Group, the world’s second-largest advertising company, made a hostile 1.08 billion pound ($2.13 billion) bid for Britain’s Taylor Nelson Sofres, challenging its agreed merger with GfK Holdings. TNS is the world’s third-biggest market research company with clients such as Procter & Gamble. The WPP offer has a significant amount of cash, so the lack of a premium to current prices may not bother TNS shareholders wanting to reduce exposure to the advertising environment, with the pervading frosty economic conditions. A source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday that Germany’s GfK was considering making a counter-offer for TNS with a co-investor to head off the WPP bid and safeguard its own deal.

Other deals of the day:

* Huron Consulting said it bought management consulting firm Stockamp & Associates for about $219 million in a cash and stock deal to expand its footprint in the hospital consulting space.

* Chinese logistics giant Sinotrans has agreed to merge with China Yangtze Transportation, the listed units of the two companies said.

* Belgian-Dutch financial services group Fortis said on Wednesday it had sold former ABN AMRO unit International Asset Management as part of a strategy to bolster its balance sheet.

* Suez Tractebel, part of France’s Suez Energy International, plans to sell its 32.8 percent stake in Oman’s United Power before next March at the government’s behest, a company official said.

* Russian electricity holding Integrated Energy System plans to raise up to $1 billion selling off non-core assets, the head of the company told reporters late on Tuesday.

* Polish media group Agora plans to take over news channel Superstacja to secure a foothold on the local television market, daily Rzeczpospolita reported on Wednesday, without citing sources.

* KPIT Cummins Infosystems said it has bought the mechanical design services of Harita TVS Technologies for an undisclosed sum.

Sovereign wealth funds meet this week to uncloak any political motivations that might lurk behind their rich capital infusions. The talks are focused on devising a code of ethics to allay Western fears and could help create transparency. Alas, most of substance is being debated behind closed doors. It is being held in Singapore, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that transparency is not a particularly high priority. The funds, controlling an estimated $3 trillion in assets, are owned by national governments and often armed with cash piles from soaring oil prices and trade. They have sunk billions into Citigroup and UBS, which were reeling from the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market. Goldman Sachs estimates U.S. and European banks may need a further capital infusion of more than $200 billion.

It’s a good thing for Anheuser-Busch that Bud Light is so popular. If Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev manages to take over the company, it will probably put it on a serious diet as it aims to trim up to $1.4 billion of costs. Employees and union officials at InBev describe the tightest of budget controls: mobile phones taken back and returned only to employees who justified a need for one; new pens given out only in return for used ones; and an elevator at the global headquarters closed for several months. The elevator is back in use now, although signs in the lobby read: “Why not take the stairs?” InBev says many such measures, and notably larger water and energy conservation efforts, also serve sustainability targets and that its cost-saving push is simply one pillar of an overall strategy also focused on boosting beer volumes.

Shares in British retailer Marks & Spencer are up on market talk of possible bid interest in the retailer. Rival department stores owner Philip Green, who was linked with a stakebuild in M&S in January, was again mentioned as a possible suitor, traders said, but some attributed the bounce to expectations for upbeat news from an upcoming M&S annual general meeting. Boss Stuart Rose, lauded for reviving the landmark British retailer just a year ago, is battling to save his job after a big profit warning and bungled management changes.

Want more evidence the credit markets are on ice? CIT completed a $100 million loan agreement with Daryl Katz for the purchase of Canadian ice hockey team the Edmonton Oilers, according to the Wall Street Journal. Katz agreed to purchase the Oilers in February for $200 million. “The debt markets have been a little finicky,” Gordon Saint-Denis, managing director of media, entertainment and sports for CIT, told the paper. “But this is a deal for a hockey team in Canada, where hockey is king, and Edmonton has been doing very well from an economic standpoint,” he was quoted as saying.

Other deals of the day:

* Spanish oil company Repsol is in talks with Russian oil major Rosneft about taking a stake in the Sakhalin-III oil and gas fields, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

* Singapore conglomerate Fraser and Neave said its property unit has bought 17.7 percent of Allco Commercial REIT and all of the real estate investment trust’s manager for S$180 million ($132 million).

* Spanish low-cost airlines Vueling and Clickair have agreed to merge, Vueling said, in a move to create a carrier better equipped to tackle stiff competition and high fuel costs.

* U.S. asset manager Janus Capital Group said it is paying $90 million cash to raise its stake in Chicago-based money manager Perkins, Wolf, McDonnell and Company to 80 percent from 30 percent.

* Ameriprise Financial, an asset manager and broker specializing in retirement plans, said it agreed to buy asset manager J & W Seligman & Co for $440 million.

* China’s Sinosteel took a big step closer to acquiring Australian iron ore prospector Midwest Corp, with Midwest’s directors lining up to sell their shares after a merger with Murchison Metals collapsed.

* Designer Roberto Cavalli has decided not to sell his fashion house, he told Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper, because prices have fallen during the financial market crisis.