DealZone

British insurer Prudential is to list in Hong Kong on May 11 and announced a secondary listing in Singapore to fund its $35.5 billion takeover of rival AIA, AIG’s Asian life insurance business.  Prudential said it would publish prospectuses for each of the listings on May 5.

U.S. air carriers United Airlines and Continental are considering a nil premium all stock merger to create the world’s largest airline valued at about $6.6 billion.  US Airways earlier dropped out of merger discussions with United. Many believed United had only entered talks with US Airways to draw out Continental, arguably a better match for it.

CenturyTel is to buy Qwest Communications in another stock deal, valuing the combination of the U.S.’s third and fourth largest landline telephone companies at $10.6 billion. The deal is designed to let the new business, CenturyLink, cut costs and compete more effectively, as consumers increasingly unplug their phone lines and go mobile.

For other Reuters deals news, click here.

In other media:

American clothing group North Face has take a 5 percent stake in Blacks Leisure, a move that could prevent Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct mounting another bid for the outdoor clothing retailer, the Telegraph reports.

Private equity firm Bridgepoint is in exclusive talks to buy arts and crafts retailer Hobbycraft for more than 100 million pounds the FT reports, seeing off interest from rivals Blackstone and Exponent and car parts and cycle retailer Halfords.

If you want to take a bite out of Apple’s piece of the staggeringly huge (but difficult to quantify in $$$ terms) smartphone market pie, you’d better either have the magical new “thing” or be willing to spend to buy it.

As Anupreeta Das reports, Palm – one of the stalwart originals in the mobile handset space — has remade itself into a terrific target with the success of its Pre. Palm’s stock got a jolt this week on talk that Nokia could be considering a bid. But as she explains, Palm may prove to be too pricey a purchase, even for those with deep pockets.

Since introducing the Pre, Dell, Microsoft, Nokia and Motorola have been mentioned as possible suitors. If one of these cash-rich companies was to bid for Palm today, it would be targeting a stock that has quadrupled this year. Complicating matters, “details on how many units it has sold are skimpy, making it difficult to value the success of Palm’s turnaround story,” she reports.

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.