S&P Global Market Intelligence presents In Play Today, a periodic summary of potential deal activity in the financial sectors of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This summary, which is displayed according to the location of a target's headquarters, is based on information obtained by S&P Global Market Intelligence and may not be inclusive of all potential deal activity.
Europe
* HSBC Holdings Plc is weighing options including a merger deal for its asset management business to help it compete in the market, Bloomberg News reported.
* Swiss banking software provider Temenos Group AG and U.K.-based trading and technology vendor Fidessa group Plc are in advanced talks for a possible all-cash offer by Temenos for the entire issued and to-be-issued share capital of Fidessa. The offer values the company at about £1.40 billion.
* Emirates NBD Bank PJSC plans to submit its bid for PAO Sberbank of Russia's Turkish unit, DenizBank AS, in March. A deal for 99.9% of DenizBank could total about $4.12 billion, according to Bloomberg's calculations.
* Russian businessman and lawmaker Suleiman Kerimov agreed to acquire a majority stake in Vozrozhdenie Bank from the former owners of PAO Promsvyazbank, Dmitry and Aleksey Ananiev. The deal could exclude cash because of existing obligations of the lender's current owners to entities owned by Kerimov.
* Groupe BPCE unit Natixis is in exclusive talks with Comitéo's shareholders to acquire a majority stake in the French payments company. Comitéo founders Cédric Leblanc and Nicolas Mignot will maintain a stake in the company and remain in charge of its operational management, following the deal.
Rest of the world
* The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia is in talks to buy a 15% stake in French hotelier AccorHotels' property arm AccorInvest, in a deal that could value the latter at approximately €6.2 billion. A group including the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte., diversified real estate investment trust Colony NorthStar Inc. and French asset manager Amundi SA is eyeing a majority stake in AccorInvest.
* Qatar's Commercial Bank (PSQC) agreed, in principle, to offload its 40% stake in United Arab Emirates-based United Arab Bank PJSC to private equity firm Tabarak Investment, a source told Reuters, which noted that the Qatari lender's stake is worth 1.3 billion United Arab Emirates dirhams.
