Qatar to own 17 pct of merged Alpha-Eurobank

ATHENS | Mon Aug 29, 2011 8:10am EDT

Aug 29 (Reuters) - Qatar will own about 17 percent of the lender that will be created by the merger of Alpha Bank (ACBr.AT) and Eurobank (EFGr.AT), the two banks said in a presentation on Monday.

Paramount, a company controlled by Qatar, will own the stake after taking part in a 1.25 billion euro rights offer and fully taking up a 500 million euro convertible bond issue, they said. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos and Harry Papachristou) Source: Reuters

Mergers & Acquisitions: Alpha Bank Buys Eurobank, Capital One’s Acquisition of ING Direct USA in Jeopardy

By Emily Knapp

August 29 2011

Alpha Bank will acquire Eurobank to create Greece’s largest bank in a move that will both strengthen the two banks and bring stability to the Greek financial sector as a whole. Combined, the two banks have a total of 146 billion euros in assets.

Investing Insights: 5 Investing Strategies For Volatile Stock Markets.

Green Mountain Coffee (NASDAQ:GMCR) has agreed to sell its workplace coffee service, Filterfresh, which it obtained in 2010 through its acquisition of Van Houtte, for $145 million in cash to ARAMARK. Green Mountain has $422 million in debt, which it could pay down using the money from the sale.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) plans to sell more than half of its stake in China Construction Bank to private equity firms and a consortium of Asian sovereign wealth funds for $10 billion. The deal could go through as soon as today.

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM), and Lone Star have won in a bid forAnglo Irish Bank’s $9.65 billion portfolio of U.S. commercial real-estate loans. The offer values the assets at about $0.80 on the dollar. Performing debt will go to JPMorgan and Wells while Lone Star will take the subperforming and nonperforming loans.

AuRico Gold (AUQ) has agreed to buy Northgate Minerals (AMEX:NXG) for $1.48 billion, creating a major gold producer with operations in Canada, Mexico, and Australia. Northgate investors will receive 0.365 shares of AuRico common stock for each Northgate share they own, a 45% premium on Northgate’s average price over the last 20 days. AuRico shareholders would own 62% of the new company, while Northgate shareholders would hold 38%. Read the rest on: