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

** Italian private broadcaster Mediaset said it had sold to Sky’s Italian unit the whole of R2, a company which includes the maintenance and commercial assets carved out of its pay-TV unit Premium.

** Brazil’s state-controlled power company Centrais Elétricas Brasileiras SA will hold an auction on Dec. 19 to sell its subsidiary Companhia Energética de Alagoas (CEAL), the company said in a market filing.

** EU antitrust regulators are likely to launch a full-scale investigation into Vodafone’s $21.8 billion purchase of Liberty Global’s assets in Germany and eastern Europe, a person familiar with the matter said.

** Hungarian savings and loans group Takarek will “look at” Budapest Bank if the state-owned lender comes up for privatisation, its Chairman and Chief Executive Jozsef Vida said.

** China’s securities regulator said it has given UBS AG approval to increase its stake in its Chinese brokerage venture to 51 percent, making the Swiss bank the first foreign financial institution to gain control of a Chinese securities firm.

** Russia’s second-largest lender Bank VTB PAO does not rule out increasing its stake in Russian food retailer Magnit, TASS news agency quoted VTB First Deputy CEO Yuri Soloviev as saying in an interview.

** Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International has enough capital to consider acquisitions and is interested in the Czech Republic, Serbia and other East European markets, its chief executive said.

** Rovio Entertainment, the maker of the “Angry Birds” mobile games and movie, said it had acquired Finnish game studio PlayRaven to expand into mobile strategy games.

** South Africa’s Clover Industries said other firms have shown interest in buying all its shares, after the dairy firm said in October it was in talks with a potential suitor.

** Telecoms and cable group Altice Europe said its French unit had agreed to sell a 49.99 percent stake in its SFR FTTH fibre optic business to three investment funds for 1.8 billion euros ($2.05 billion).

** Swedish packaging paper and carton producer BillerudKorsnas said it had agreed to buy Bergvik Skog Ost, which owns 350,000 hectares of forest land in Sweden, for around 6.4 billion crowns ($706 million).

** U.S.-based private equity fund Indigo Partners said it had agreed to invest in low-cost carrier WOW air after Icelandair scrapped plans to buy the privately-held airline.

** India expects Saudi Arabia to ramp up investments in several sectors including technology, farm and energy over the next couple of years, a senior Indian official said, after a meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

** A state-owned Chinese consortium has struck a deal to buy Peru’s Chaglla hydroelectric plant from scandal-plagued Brazilian builder Odebrecht SA for at least $618 million, Peru’s Justice Ministry said.

** Brazil’s state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA is considering divesting up to $15 billion within the next few years, one person with knowledge of the matter said.

** Brazilian pulp and paper producer Suzano Papel e Celulose SA expects to conclude the acquisition of Fibria Celulose SA on Jan. 14, both companies said in securities filings. (Compiled by Mary Ann Alapatt and Bharath Manjesh in Bengaluru)