The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Tuesday:

** Merck & Co Inc said it would buy Peloton Therapeutics Inc for $1.05 billion in cash to gain access to the privately held company’s renal cancer drug candidate.

** U.S. industrial manufacturer Crane Co made a hostile takeover bid for smaller rival Circor International Inc for about $894 million, after an earlier offer was rejected by Circor’s board.

** India’s Punjab National Bank is looking to merge with two or three government owned banks that could include Oriental Bank Of Commerce, Andhra Bank and Allahabad Bank , two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters, as New Delhi tries to cut the number of state-owned lenders.

** PPG Industries Inc said it decided to keep its architectural and industrial coatings units after reviewing its operations following calls from activist investor Nelson Peltz to break up the company.

** Brazilian electric utility CPFL Energia SA announced a memorandum of understanding with its parent company, China’s State Grid, for the potential acquisition of State Grid’s stake in its renewables arm CPFL Renovaveis .

** Britain’s Amryt Pharma has agreed to buy Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Novelion Therapeutics , in a deal that reunites the franchise for lomitapide, a treatment for patients with a rare cholesterol disorder.

** The assets of Kenya’s ARM Cement have been sold to the National Cement Company for $50 million, its administrator said.

** EU antitrust regulators will decide by June 27 whether to clear U.S. tech giant International Business Machines Corp’s $34 billion bid for software company Red Hat.

** French utility Engie and Portuguese power company EDP will create a 50-50 joint venture to pool their fixed and floating offshore wind operations, the companies said.

** French businessman Jacques Veyrat, who controls a stake of more than 50 percent in renewables energy group Neoen , could sell Neoen to utility Engie in return for a small stake in Engie, BFM Business reported on its website.

** Japan’s Toshiba, Siemens unit Gamesa and buyout groups such as Blackstone are interested in buying insolvent German wind turbine maker Senvion , German Manager Magazine said, citing sources close to talks.

** Private equity firms such as Blackstone, Brookfield Asset Management, Mirae Asset Management, and SoftBank-owned Fortress have put in bids of up to $5.8 billion for Anbang Insurance’s portfolio of U.S. luxury hotels business, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the sales process.

** El Salvador’s competition authority said it had rejected a bid by Mexican telecoms company America Movil to acquire the local unit of Spanish rival Telefonica, arguing the planned takeover did not meet anti-trust requirements. (Compiled by Aakash Jagadeesh Babu and Bharath Manjesh in Bengaluru)