DealZone

Deals abound. This morning, Vivendi launches a bid for GVT, a Brazilian telecom operator. The deal will be worth some 2 billion euros if completed. And overnight, it became clear who are the bidders for the 46 percent-stake in Kuwaiti telecom operator Zain. A consortium of Indian telecom companies will pay some $13.7 billion for the holding, together with a Malaysian investor. For other Reuters stories on deals, click here.

And here are some deal-related stories in other media.

* China Vanadium Titano Magnetite Mining and sportswear retailer Peak Sport Products aim to launch initial public offerings in the next few weeks, a Hong Kong newspaper reported.

* China’s Yantai Wanhua Polyurethane Co (600309.SS) is seeking to buy a stake in privately owned Hungarian chemicals firm BorsodChem as a long-term strategic investor, business daily Napi Gazdasag says.

* Brookfield Incorporacoes, the Brazilian real estate unit of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management (BAMa.TO)(BAM.N), plans to sell about 600 million reais ($326 million) of stock, Valor Economico newspaper reports.

Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom have confirmed they are talking to combine their UK mobile operations in a JV. And Abu Dhabi’s ATIC has offered to buy Chartered Semiconductor — another sign that M&A is picking up after Kraft/Cadbury?

For all Reuters deals news, click here.

Just one story we picked up from other media today: Chinese machinery maker Tengzhong is still working to close a deal with General Motors Co to buy the U.S. automaker’s Hummer brand after a regulatory setback, Chinese media reported.

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross says he plans to invest further in banks, but new capital requirements for private equity investment in the sector are still too tight. Meanwhile, a senior German government official says Opel has the liquidity to operate until next year, as a rift appears to develop in the ruling party over whether the General Motors Co unit should be sold to Canada’s Magna International (MGa.TO).

For more on these stories, and the rest of the latest deals news from Reuters, click here.

Here’s what else we found in the papers (some external links may require subscriptions):

U.S. banking regulators partially retreat from a much-criticized proposal to impose new rules on private equity investment in troubled banks, aiming to encourage responsible investment in distressed banks. And General Electric Co (GE.N) puts its security business up for sale in an auction that could fetch about $2 billion.

For more on these stories, and the rest of the latest deals news from Reuters, click here.

Elsewhere, there’s lots of buzz this morning about comments from Adair Turner, of Britain’s Financial Services Authority, on how much of what the City does is “socially useless” and how so-called Tobin taxes on transactions may be considered — prompting big pieces in the Guardian and the FT.

The Obama administration pledges to stay out of General Motors’ choice of a buyer for its European Opel unit, while union leaders in Germany put more pressure on the U.S. automaker to make a decision. Meanwhile, Lowe’s Companies Inc (LOW.N), the No. 2 U.S. home improvement chain, is making its first foray outside North America through a joint venture with Woolworths Ltd (WOW.AX), Australia’s largest retailer.

For more on these stories, and all the other latest deals news from Reuters, click here.

And here’s what’s in the papers (some external links may require subscriptions):

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says General Motors “urgently” needs to decide on Opel’s future, while specialty drugmaker Warner Chilcott moves to acquire Procter & Gamble’s $3 billion prescription-drug business.

For these stories, and all the rest of the latest deals news from Reuters, click here.

And here’s what caught our eye in the newspapers (some external links may require subscriptions):

A number of private equity firms in Europe are going back to investors for more money to fix over-extended balance sheets and fund add-on acquisitions for companies in their portfolio.

Private equity’s world has turned upside down since the start of the credit crisis. All the stats show that deal flow has dropped off a cliff and those deals that have got done are smaller and the equity cheques larger. At the same time,  restructuring situations are mounting as firms face the uneviable choice of injecting more equity or face losing their investments to the banks.

The upshot is that buyout funds raised in rosier times are no longer suited to the current environment, if indeed they have any capital left at all.

Alabama’s Colonial Bank collapsed Friday under the weight of the financial crisis and allegations of fraud – making it the biggest bank to fail this year. 

US regulators shuttered the bank and sold its assets to BB&T, which got Colonial’s $20 billion deposits and an FDIC guarantee on $15 billion of assets. 

One analyst questioned how much of those deposits will stick with BB&T after the takeover, though. Colonial was paying about 100 basis points more for funds than BB&T, said Richard Bove of Rochdale Securities, in a research note.

Thomson Reuters data for July show the so-called “mid-market”, of deals below $500 million, has come off slightly compared to the month before, and steeply compared to the same month a year ago.

Year-to-date, JPMorgan is the busiest bank by dollar value of deals, displacing Credit Suisse, which falls from 1st to 6th. Freshfields overtakes Clifford Chance as the busiest legal outfit. A few highlights from the report:

“Global Mid-Market deal activity for July at US$40.8bn from 2,940 deals, down 6% from US$43.3bn from 3,284 deals in June. Down 42% compared to US$70.2bn from 3,627 deals in July 2008

Asset managers are in for some deal-making as the sector tries to deal with the chinks exposed by the financial crisis, KBW analysts predict.”Stressed capital markets have depressed profitability at most asset managers and brought to the fore many of the challenges that have been confronting the industry but were obscured by the bull market,” the analysts write in a report.Some of the deal activity has already been playing out as divestitures by financial services companies, with negotiations ongoing for such units as AIG’s business and Bank of America’s Columbia.KBW’s analysts predict most acquisitions are likely to be smaller transactions.Possible buyers? Invesco, BlackRock, Bank of New York Mellon, Franklin Resources, Legg Mason, Affiliated Managers Group, Federated Investors, Blackstone, Fortress, GLG Partners and others have expressed a continued interest in acquisitions, they said.Those hungry for larger deals could include Franklin and Bank of New York Mellon, the analysts said, adding that they see little likelihood of deals between publicly traded asset managers.