Aug 15 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Thursday:
Cosmetics maker Revlon Inc REV.N has tapped Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) GS.N to explore options for its business, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Vietnam plans to speed up its privatization program by selling stakes in nearly 100 state-owned firms by the end of 2020, including Agribank, the government said.
Canadian property and casualty insurer Intact Financial Corp IFC.TO said it agreed to buy The Guarantee Co of North America and Frank Cowan Co for C$1 billion ($750.6 million) in cash from Princeton Holdings Ltd.
VMware Inc VMW.N and Pivotal Software Inc PVTL.N are negotiating a deal for VMWare to acquire Pivotal, according to a regulatory filing from Dell Technologies Inc DELL.N on Wednesday, valuing Pivotal, a maker of software development and management tools, at about $4 billion.
Kenya's biggest lender by assets KCB Group KCB.NR is confident of sealing its takeover offer of National Bank of Kenya NBK.NR to increase its market share, its chief executive.
Russian state-controlled bank VTB VTBR.MM said it had completed its purchase of a 70% stake in local grain trader Mirogroup, expanding the lender's diversification into the grain export business.
Russia's second biggest bank VTB VTBR.MM has acquired a 19% stake in Qatari lender CQUR Bank which was set up early this year, Interfax news agency reported, citing VTB's quarterly financial report and the Qatari Financial Centre.
Units of Singapore's sovereign fund Temasek - Aspen Holdings and Anderton Investments - launched an overnight block trade on Wednesday for 15.6 billion baht ($505.67 million) or 8.02% of its stakes in Thai telco company Intouch Holdings Pcl INTUCH.BK, according to a term sheet.
Billionaire U.S. investor William Ackman has long described how Warren Buffett, often called the greatest stock picker ever, has influenced his career. Now he's paying the Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) of Omaha the ultimate homage with a new investment in Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa) BRKa.N , BRKb.N . Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRKa.N on Wednesday said it boosted its stake in Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O by 11% during the second quarter, as U.S. stock indexes traded near record highs.