DealZone

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd may knock on the doors of the Nasdaq or Chicago’s CBOE as the stock exchange operator eyes a partner amid the politically-sensitive merger activity engulfing the sector.

The departure of L’Oreal Chairman Lindsay Owen-Jones may bring the cosmetics giant one step closer to buying a direct sales company. Some executives and bankers have long held a view that L’Oreal should get into direct sales to boost its penetration of emerging markets where make-up and creams are still sold door-to-door.

Multi-billion dollar deals are back in the headlines and and investors are onboard, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Pipeline company Kinder Morgan sold more shares and priced them above the expected range, an underwriter said, raising about $2.86 billion in the largest U.S. energy initial public offering since 1998. The Wall Street Journal reports on who is getting rich for the deal.

“These days ‘caveat emptor’ — let the buyer beware — is staging a comeback,” reports The New York Times.

Ireland’s banks are up for sale, the country’s central bank chief said, as the government seeks to cut them down in size after their reckless lending forced the country to seek an international bailout.

Shares in Bank of Ireland tumbled 29 percent and Allied Irish Banks lost 17 percent as shareholders face dilution from more capital injections, that could see AIB effectively nationalized.

Fortune’s Dan Primack observes how Republican Senator John McCain once used Ireland’s low corporate tax rate as a fiscal beacon, during his presidential run against Barack Obama. “Ireland considers the corporate tax rate to be a cornerstone of its economic well-being, but today that’s like saying that the Vikings consider Brett Favre to be a cornerstone of this year’s Super Bowl hopes,” writes Primack.