The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Tuesday:

** Bridgepoint has been sounding out possible bidders for its Portuguese agrochemical company Rovensa ahead of an auction process early next year that could raise about 800 million euros ($882 million), five sources told Reuters.

** Italy’s A2A and Czech utility EPH will submit a binding offer for energy company Sorgenia by the deadline of Dec. 15, A2A’s chief executive said on Tuesday.

** National Bank (NBG) has signed a deal to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary in Cyprus to Astrobank for an undisclosed amount, Greece’s second-largest lender by assets said on Tuesday.

** Xerox Corp said on Tuesday it was planning to take its $33.5 billion buyout bid directly to HP Inc shareholders after the personal computer maker refused to open its books for due diligence before a deadline.

** Lufthansa is in final negotiations on a sale of its LSG catering division’s European operations to Switzerland’s Gategroup as part of plans to focus on its airline business.

** British commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta is ready to bid for British Steel if an offer from China’s Jingye Group falls through, two sources close to the matter have said.

** London Stock Exchange shareholders overwhelmingly backed the exchange’s $27 billion takeover of data and analytics company Refinitiv, a deal designed to broaden LSE’s trading business and make it a major distributor of market data.

** Software company Capgemini will stick to its bid of 14 euros ($15.43) per share for smaller rival Altran , its chief executive told Reuters, as it tries to fend off pressure from activist hedge fund Elliott for a higher offer.

** Italy is considering several options to save Alitalia , but selling the struggling carrier to a consortium led by railway group Ferrovie dello Stato is no longer an alternative, the industry minister said.

** Austrian property groups Immofinanz and its smaller rival S Immo have abandoned their plan to merge, they said on Tuesday, leaving their crowded market’s future uncertain after another planned merger by Immofinanz fell through.

** Just Eat shareholder Cat Rock Capital urged investors to back an all-share merger with Takeaway.com , saying it believed the combination could create a company worth 1,200 pence a share in little more than a year.

** Egypt will offer 22% to 25% of the shares in Heliopolis Company For Housing and Development on the Egyptian stock exchange in the first quarter of 2020, Public Enterprise Minister Hesham Tawfik said.

** Thomas Cook’s German airline Condor has drawn substantial interest from potential suitors, the group said, two months after its parent collapsed.

** Carrefour said it was in advanced talks with consumer electronics group Fnac Darty to set up around 30 Darty standalone stores within its French hypermarkets under exclusive operating agreements.

** Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners’ offer for PNE which values the German renewable firm at 306 million euros ($337 million) is too low, small shareholders group SdK said.

** An exploration well drilled by Wintershall Dea GmbH in the Norwegian Sea contained only minor amounts of oil and will not be profitable to develop, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said.

** Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc sweetened an approach for Caltex Australia with a A$8.61 billion ($5.8 billion) offer, a day after Caltex said it could carve out some of its convenience shop sites.

** Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot-owner PSA told their employees they would sign a binding merger agreement in coming weeks.

** Pedro Moura Costa, a pioneer of carbon markets in the 1990s, and partner Pablo Martinez are buying back from Swiss trader Mercuria Energy Group Ltd the low-carbon projects’ developer and carbon credit generator EcoSecurities, Moura Costa said.

** Embattled Singapore water firm Hyflux said it had entered a restructuring deal worth S$400 million ($293 million) with United Arab Emirates-based utility Utico FZC.

** The bankrupt Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc oil refiner is seeking a minimum of $2.5 million in bonus payments to its top executives as part of a plan to reorganize or sell the company, U.S. bankruptcy court filings show.

** Daimler’s main Chinese joint venture partner BAIC Group has signaled its intention to increase its stake in the German luxury car manufacturer, sources briefed on the matter said, after it built up a 5% Daimler holding in July.

** Japanese conglomerate Hitachi Ltd is nearing a deal to sell its 51% stake in Hitachi Chemical Co Ltd to Showa Denko KK in a transaction that could be worth about 950 billion yen ($8.7 billion), the Nikkei reported on Monday.

** Pipeline operator Tallgrass Energy LP said on Monday Chief Executive Officer David Dehaemers resigned and would be replaced by operations head Bill Moler, a move that was backed by shareholder Blackstone Group Inc.

** A Delaware judge on Monday ordered broadcaster CBS Corp to turn over records regarding its plan to reunite with Viacom Inc to a shareholder who wants to investigate if the deal unfairly benefits Shari Redstone, who controls both companies.

** Australia’s Evolution Mining Ltd agreed to buy Canadian gold mining complex Red Lake from Newmont Goldcorp Corp for $375 million in cash.

** U.S. insurer American International Group Inc said it would sell a major portion of its stake in reinsurer Fortitude Re to buyout fund Carlyle Group and Japanese insurer T&D Holdings for about $1.8 billion.

** Activist investor Starboard Value LP has taken a stake in CVS Health Corp and held talks with the drugstore chain’s management, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

** Texas’ attorney general settled with T-Mobile Inc and Sprint Corp and will drop his opposition to the $26.5 billion merger, leaving just Democratic attorneys general fighting the proposed combination.