The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1000 GMT on Monday:

** Norway’s Telenor and Malaysia’s Axiata Group are in talks to run a jointly owned telecoms giant in South and Southeast Asia with nearly 300 million customers, looking to slash costs and expand in cut-throat markets.

** GrainCorp Ltd, Australia’s largest-listed bulk grain handler, said Long-Term Asset Partners (LTAP) had withdrawn its unsolicited A$2.38 billion ($1.66 billion) takeover bid for the company.

** Kenya’s biggest lender by assets, KCB Group, plans to buy a bank in Rwanda and one in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), its chief executive said.

** Occidental Petroleum Corp increased the cash component of its $38 billion bid to acquire Anadarko Petroleum Corp on Sunday, removing a requirement for any deal to receive the approval of Occidental’s shareholders.

** Elliott Advisors has become increasingly frustrated with Whitbread Plc’s strategy of owning Premier Inn hotels outright and wants the company to offload chunks of its 5.8 billion pound ($7.64 billion) property portfolio, the Sunday Telegraph reported on Saturday.

** Walt Disney Co said on Friday it would sell its interests in 21 regional sports networks and Fox College Sports to Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc for $9.6 billion, a deal that clears the way for its purchase of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s film and television assets. (Compiled by Bharath Manjesh in Bengaluru)