Mergers and acquisitions

The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 0930 GMT on Thursday:

** SoftBank's LY Corp TSE:4689 and Bain Capital have again raised their bid for Kakaku.com TSE:2371, valuing the Japanese price-comparison website operator at 670 billion yen ($4.12 billion) and widening the gap over a rival offer from Sweden's EQT OMXSTO:EQT.

** A subsidiary of Denmark's A.P. Moller Holding has agreed to acquire Norwegian ship leasing company Ocean Yield from funds managed by private equity firm KKR NYSE:KKR for an undisclosed sum, the companies said.

** QBE Insurance Group has acquired 100% ownership of the Indian carrier Raheja QBE General Insurance Company, the Australian-headquartered global insurer said.

** Genel Energy LSE:GENL will acquire Capricorn Energy LSE:CNE for $360 million in an all-cash deal, it said, giving it a foothold in Egypt as it moves to diversify beyond its disruption-prone oil assets in Iraqi Kurdistan.

** World Insurance Associates has acquired Rockland, Maryland-based auto, home, business and life insurance specialty business Still Creek Insurance, with the deal concluding on March 1.

** U.S.-based investment manager Columbia Threadneedle and Germany's Patrizia have agreed to merge their British property trusts, the companies said on Thursday, in line with a trend for real estate investors to seek increased scale to weather high borrowing costs.