Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions

(Adds General Electric Co, Encana Corp, Daiichi Sankyo and others) April 20 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Monday: ** General Electric Co is in early-stage talks with Wells Fargo & Co about selling its entire $74 billion U.S. commercial lending and leasing portfolio to the bank, according to a source familiar with the situation. ** Staff attorneys at the Justice Department's antitrust division are nearing a recommendation to block the proposed $45 billion merger of Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable Inc, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Representatives of Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable are preparing to meet officials from the U.S. Department of Justice for talks on the planned merger of the two cable giants, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. ** Financial technology company SunGard Data Systems Inc is preparing to appoint financial advisers to explore a sale that could value it at as much as $10 billion, including debt, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. ** Prologis Inc, which owns warehouses and retail-distribution centers, said on Sunday it would acquire the real estate assets and operating platform of closely held KTR Capital Partners and its affiliates for $5.9 billion. ** Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, controlled by Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing, and CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd said their shareholders have approved their reorganization proposal, bringing it a step closer to completion. ** Encana Corp , Canada's largest natural gas producer, is considering selling its natural gas properties in its Haynesville Shale basin acreage in Louisiana, Bloomberg reported, citing sources. ** A trust controlled by British financier Nat Rothschild and the parent of Russia's Siberian Coal Energy Co are considering making a cash offer for coal miner Asia Resource Minerals Plc, which has most of its operations in Indonesia. ** Britain ordered Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman to sell his North Sea gas fields within six months, an intervention that ratchets up the pressure on one of Russia's most influential tycoons two weeks before a UK election. ** Japan's Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd is selling shares worth up to $3.6 billion in Indian drugmaker Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, setting it on course to retreat from India after a rollercoaster seven years. ** Nomad Holdings Ltd said it would buy Iglo Foods Holdings Ltd, Europe's biggest frozen foods business and the company behind the Birds Eye brand, for about 2.6 billion euros ($2.79 billion) from a company backed by private equity group Permira. ** U.S. arms maker Raytheon Co is buying network security provider Websense Inc from private equity firm Vista Equity Partners LLC in a $1.9 billion deal, the latest in the fast-growing cybersecurity market. ** Founder Guy Laliberte has agreed to sell control of Cirque du Soleil, the world's largest theatrical production company, for about $1.5 billion, the Globe and Mail reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. ** Vencore Inc, an information technology contractor serving U.S. intelligence agencies and the U.S. Department of Defense, is exploring a sale that could value it at around $1.5 billion, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter. ** Cable company Liberty Global Plc said on Monday it would buy KPN's Base mobile telephony subsidiary in Belgium for 1.325 billion euros ($1.43 billion) in cash. ** Investment fund Coliseu has reached a preliminary agreement to sell its stake in Brazilian transmission utility Taesa to Colombia's Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM) for 1.527 billion reais ($502.40 million), both companies said on Friday. ** A consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Advent International Corp. is set to buy the consumer products business of India's Crompton Greaves for up to $350 million, two sources directly involved in the deal told Reuters. ** Baring Private Equity Asia is nearing deal to buy 40 percent of Weetabix Ltd, the UK's second-largest branded manufacturer of cereals and cereal bars, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. ** Groupon Inc said it would sell a 46 percent stake in Ticket Monster, its South Korean e-commerce business, for $360 million amid efforts to turn itself around. ** EU regulators has cleared telecom group Altice's planned 7.4 billion euro ($7.9 billion) purchase of the Portuguese assets of Brazil's Grupo Oi subject to the condition that Altice sells its current Portuguese businesses. ** Indian vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra aims to present a formal offer for Pininfarina in time for the Italian car designer's shareholder meeting on April 29, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. ** Egypt's Commercial International Bank (CIB) said its management had decided to submit a binding offer to acquire Citigroup's retail portfolio in Egypt. ** The boards of Oman National Investment Corp Holding and Oman International Development and Investment Company (Ominvest) have approved a proposed merger between the pair, according to bourse filings from both firms on Monday. ** Lloyds Banking Group said it would support plans by Britain's Conservative Party to sell some of the government's remaining 22 percent stake in the bank to retail investors. ** French infrastructure builder and operator Vinci aims to bid for the Lyon and Nice airports that are set to be privatized, Chief Executive Xavier Huillard said in an interview with French magazine Investir. ** An Australian state government planning the partial sale of an electricity network in the country's biggest ever privatization should first consider writing down the asset because of declining energy use, a parliamentary report said on Monday. ** Sika's board of directors wants to buy out the company's major shareholder to try to stop a takeover of the Swiss chemicals business by France's Saint-Gobain, SonntagsZeitung newspaper reported, citing two unnamed sources. ** Portugal's Banco BPI is no longer in the race to buy Novo Banco after the country's central bank picked five out of seven potential bidders last week, BPI said. ** Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna (BPER) is looking at merging with an equal or smaller rival, its CEO said on Saturday, ruling out a tie-up with a larger cooperative bank such as UBI Banca or Banco Popolare. ** Italy's biggest bank by assets, UniCredit, is close to signing a deal with Spain's Santander to combine their asset management businesses, UniCredit CEO Federico Ghizzoni said on Saturday. ** Deutsche Bank will sell Postbank but keep a pared back own-brand retail business in the overhaul plan currently favored by management, sources familiar with the internal discussions at Germany's biggest lender said. ** Japan's biggest airline, ANA Holdings Inc, will buy a stake of less than 20 percent in Skymark Airlines Inc as part of a rescue plan for the bankrupt domestic budget carrier, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. ** Greece's Piraeus Bank has bought the "good" part of small cooperative lender Panellinia, the country's central bank and Piraeus said on Friday, confirming what bankers had told Reuters earlier in the day. ** Shareholders in Mexico's America Movil on Friday approved a plan to spin off around 10,800 cell towers into a new company, Telesites, that will open up their use to competitors, the company said in a statement. ($1 = 0.93 euros) (Compiled by Ankit Ajmera and Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru)