• Boeing's (NYSE:BA) new head of its commercial aircraft division, Jim Albaugh, said the long-awaited Dreamliner test will happen by yearend

• Citigroup (NYSE:C) plans to sell Bellsystem 24, a Japanese telemarketing company, to Bain Capital for $1 billion, bringing to $10.8 billion the dollar amount Citi has raised from sales of Japanese assets

• Hedge fund Paulson & Co. reported in a September 30 filing Citigroup (NYSE:C) holdings of 300 million shares, valued at $1.45 billion

• Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) raised its bid for Tandberg ASA to $3.4 billion, or about an 11% increase, and extended its offer to December 1

• According to a Bloomberg report, Mitsubishi UFJ has hired JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) to manage an $11 billion secondary offering, Japan's largest ever. The company plans to sell about 2.5 billion common shares

• Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) said it plans to spin off its 83% stake in Mead Johnson Nutrition

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Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts!

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FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com

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DrStockPick.com Watch List!

My Picks for Monday November 16, 2009 are:

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GE, General Electric Co.

GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE, is a world-leading provider of jet engines, components and integrated systems for commercial and military aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings.

GE Aviation and AVIC Systems of China have agreement on forming a new joint venture company to develop and market integrated avionics systems for commercial aircraft customers.

The joint venture is based in China but will target the U.S. and the global market as GE Aviation and AVIC Systems work together to achieve mutual

...

Morgan Stanley (MS) is pursuing a buyer to sell its 34% stake that it holds in investment bank China International Capital Corporation (CICC). Morgan Stanley’s role in CICC has been reduced to that of a passive investor, prompting the case for disinvestment. Morgan Stanley received approval from Chinese regulators early last year to sell its stake in CICC. However, it then did not opt for the disinvestment as the bids were very low at that time. As the markets have now bounced back, the company now wants to revisit the deal. Potential suitors for the divestiture in China's largest investment bank could be private equity firms, namely Bain Capital and General Atlantic. The first rounds for the bids are expected on Tuesday. The divestiture is expected to realize over $1.2 billion for Morgan Stanley. On Oct. 21, Morgan Stanley reported third-quarter 2009 income of $498 ...

Citigroup Inc.'s (C) Japanese private equity arm has restarted efforts to sell the country's largest call center company, Bellsystem24, by market share, with the first round of bidding due to close September 1st. Global buyout firms including Permira and KKR are set to bid for the company, grabbing a rare opportunity to chase big investments in Japan.

Around 20 buyout firms have reviewed the books of Bellsystem24, but only four or five may submit formal bids next week due to the deal size. Besides Permira and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, potential bidders include CVC Capital and Bain Capital. Some other firms, though not actively working on the deal at present, may enter the race if invited to partner prominent bidders.

Japanese mega-banks, which include Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MTU) and Mizuho Financial Group (MFG), which were hurt less by the global financial crisis, are willing to lend

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It is reported that U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital is to buy a 18% stake in China's electronic retail giant Gome for USD400 million. In addition, Bain Capital will acquire 12% of Gome's HKD4.6 billion convertible bonds at an annual interest rate of 5%. These bonds were issued by Gome in May 2007 and will [...]

SolarWinds Inc. (SWI) shares powered up more than 20% in debut trading on Wednesday after the software maker's initial public offering priced above its expected range.

The Austin, Texas-based company's IPO was priced at $12.50 per share, above the expected price range of $9.50 to $11.50. SolarWinds is the sixth IPO this year in the US and the third to price above its expected range. However, the amount raised from the offering is still lower than the company's original target of $250 million when it registered for the IPO back in March 2008.

The provider of network management software is backed by venture capitalists like Bain Capital and Insight Ventures, both of which sold a portion of their stake in the offering. This is the first venture-backed deal to hit the U.S. market since August 2008.

SolarWinds has been profitable since its inception in 1999

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Reports surfaced in London on Sunday that at least three new bids for iShares have surfaced.  

(Editor's note: The following was submitted by IndexUniverse.com's Murray Coleman in San Francisco and IndexUniverse.EU's Paul Amery in London.)

The recently announced $4.4 billion deal by Barclays Global Investors to sell its exchange-traded funds business to private equity manager CVC Captial Partners could be in jeporday. 

Reports surfaced in London on Sunday that at least three new bids have surfaced. The Daily Telegraph is naming private equity groups Apax, BC Partners and Hellman & Friedman as parties expressing an interest in bidding more for iShares than the original terms offered by CVC Capital.

A Barclays spokesman told the paper that it was too early to tell if any new offers would turn into anything concrete. But he did tell

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Reports surfaced in London on Sunday that at least three new bids for iShares have surfaced.  

(Editor's note: The following was submitted by IndexUniverse.com's Murray Coleman in San Francisco and IndexUniverse.EU's Paul Amery in London.)

The recently announced $4.4 billion deal by San Francisco-based Barclays Global Investors to sell its exchange-traded funds business to private equity manager CVC Captial Partners could be in jeporday. 

Reports surfaced in London on Sunday that at least three new bids have surfaced. The Daily Telegraph is naming private equity groups Apax, BC Partners and Hellman & Friedman as parties expressing an interest in bidding more for iShares than the original terms offered by CVC Capital.

A report by the Sunday Times of London also listed BC Partners. In fact, the paper says that the firm is now willing

...

A trio of private equity groups has emerged as the finalists in the auction of ETF leader Barclays Global Investors. 

 

Three private equity groups have apparently emerged as the finalists in the auction of exchange-traded funds leader Barclays Global Investors.

According to a report in the Financial Times dated March 31, parent Barclays rejected bids for BGI from Goldman Sachs and others.

The paper says that the London-based bank considered offers turned in last Friday to be insufficient and offered to accept revised proposals on Monday. 

Goldman Sachs and others dropped out, according to the report by Jane Croft and Martin Arnold. The story indicated that those opting not to continue in the auction process were unwilling to meet Barclays' demands of at least $6.5 billion for BGI.

The paper also reported that a trio of private equity groups did resubmit bids. Those came from: Bain Capital and Colony Capital; Hellman & Friedman and Apax Partners; and CVC

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Reports are listing a San Francisco-based private equity firm as the leading candidate in the bidding war over ETF leader BGI.

That shouldn't come as a big surprise to those following the next evolution of a changing iShares brand.

In case you missed it, weekend stories in papers ranging from the Wall Street Journal to the Sunday Times reported that a list of finalists has emerged in the auction of Barclays Global Investors by its parent London bank. Insiders are indicating that Hellman & Friedman LLC could wind up as the leading candidate to assume control of BGI.

As pointed out in the WSJ, that's a private equity firm also based in San Francisco with a history of past relations with the asset manager. Other possibilities, according to the paper, are Bain Capital and other private equity rivals such as TPG and Apax Partners LLP.

Although we've heard some industry

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