** Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa welcomed the
interest expressed by Lufthansa in the upcoming
privatisation of flag carrier TAP, but promised a level playing
field and a transparent process for all contenders
** A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday said it will accelerate reviewing Illumina Inc's challenge to a federal agency order requiring the biotechnology company to divest cancer diagnostic test maker Grail LLC.
** Indian conglomerate Tata Group has sought the competition
regulator's approval for a merger between its Air India airline
and Vistara, the company's joint venture with Singapore Airlines
(SIA) .
** Morgan Stanley plans to buy more wealth and asset
management businesses, and is keeping an eye on potential
targets, CEO James Gorman said.
** Cybersecurity firm Forcepoint is exploring a sale of its government security unit for more than $2 billion, five people familiar with the matter said.
** Dutch brewer Heineken has asked regulators in
the Russian Federation to approve the sale of its business in
Russia.
** ITA Airways has worked out the main elements of a
partial takeover deal with Lufthansa and hopes to
announce it "soon", the chairman of the state-controlled Italian
airline Antonino Turicchi told reporters.
** A unit of Allianz SE is considering selling
its stake in German online bank N26 at a steep discount, valuing
the lender at $3 billion, two sources familiar with the matter
told Reuters.
** Britain's competition regulator
said proposals from Alphabet Inc's Google to give app developers the freedom to break away from Google Play's billing system looked to be sufficient to address its concerns about in-app payments.
** Abu Dhabi's M42, a newly created healthcare joint venture between state fund Mubadala Investment Company and artificial intelligence firm G42, is buying Bridgepoint Group's European dialysis clinic chain Diaverum.
** An Italian investor in both UniCredit and Banco BPM said that a merger between the banks would have "strategic value", but any decision lay with management and not shareholders.
** A unit of Allianz SE has put its stake in German online bank N26 up for sale at a steep discount, valuing the lender at $3 billion, the Financial Times reported.
** Glencore has told Teck Resources shareholders it is willing to improve its $22.5 billion takeover
offer, raising the pressure on the Canadian miner to ditch a
restructuring plan and sit down at the negotiating table.
(Compiled by Khushi Mandowara and Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru)
