Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions

(Adds Shell, Playtech, Facebook, Tourmaline Oil, SFR, Ras Al Khaimah Ceramics, Tereos)

March 4 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2100 GMT on Tuesday:

** Commodity trader and miner Glencore Xstrata Plc GLEN.L confirmed its interest in buying oil assets that oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc RDSa.L . The assets being sold by Shell, France's Total TOTF.PA and Italy's Eni ENI.MI are worth around $3 billion. News Search ID:nL6N0M14LD

** An Australian regulator blocked a A$1.5 billion ($1.34 billion) deal by New South Wales to sell a power company on competition concerns, dealing a blow to the state's plans for a series of asset disposals this year to fund new road and rail projects. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruled on Tuesday that the state government's plan to sell Macquarie Generation to AGL Energy Ltd AGK.AX would have stifled competition in the country's most populous state.

News Search ID:nL3N0M05MS

** Austria's OIAG state holding company will hold a meeting next Tuesday to inform Telekom Austria's TELA.VI works council about a potential partnership with fellow shareholder Carlos Slim that could lead to a full takeover offer. News Search ID:nL6N0M12RC

** Loral Space & Communications Inc LORL.O hired boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg Partners to advise its independent directors as it explores a potential sale of the company, people close to the matter said on Monday. Loral, which holds a majority stake in Canadian satellite communication services company Telesat Holdings Inc, is working with Credit Suisse Group AG CSGN.VX to find a buyer, Reuters reported in January. News Search ID:nL1N0M01OG

** Facebook Inc FB.O is in talks to buy drone maker Titan Aerospace for $60 million, according to the technology blog TechCrunch, citing an anonymous source. News Search ID:nL1N0M119H

** British oil company BP BP.L plans to separate its onshore U.S. oil and gas assets into a new wholly-owned business to improve the competitiveness of its shale gas portfolio there.

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** China's biggest grains trader COFCO Corp is in talks to buy Noble Group Ltd's agribusiness arm in a deal that would value the division at around $1 billion, people familiar with the matter said. News Search ID:nL3N0M1222

** Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd FFH.TO and Wilbur Ross sold a combined 6.4 percent stake in Bank of Ireland BKIR.I at just under 33 cents per share on Tuesday, the upper end of initial guidance, a source familiar with the transaction said.

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** Asset manager Legg Mason Inc LM.N said it would buy privately held QS Investors, an adviser to institutional clients, to expand its portfolio of investment products.

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** Swedish activist investor Cevian increased its stake in German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp TKAG.DE to 15.1 percent and could buy more shares as it seeks long-term gains, Thyssen said.

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** Etisalat ETEL.AD expects to complete its 4.2 billion euros ($5.78 billion) purchase of a controlling stake in Maroc Telecom IAM.CS by the end of May, a top executive at the United Arab Emirates company said on Tuesday. News Search ID:nL6N0M132G

** Online gaming technology group Playtech Plc PTEC.L said its founder Teddy Sagi was selling 212 million pounds ($353 million) worth of shares, amounting to 10 percent of the group's equity. News Search ID:nASM0005VX

** Private equity firm Apax Partners Href="NewsSearch">APAX.UL is in advanced talks to acquire paint company Tambour Ltd from the Azrieli Group AZRG.TA , Israeli media reported. The acquisition will be made at a value of 800 million shekels ($229 million) including Tambour's debt of 300 million shekels, the Globes financial daily said. News Search ID:nL6N0M11CO

** Tourmaline Oil Corp TOU.TO , a Canadian oil and gas producer, said it will acquire Santonia Energy Inc STE.TO for shares and debt worth C$189.1 million ($170.7 million) in a friendly deal that will give it production and exploration lands in the Deep Basin region of western Alberta. News Search ID:nL1N0M114P

** Bouygues SA BOUY.PA will submit an offer on Wednesday to buy Vivendi's VIV.PA telecom unit SFR and will make pledges on jobs and network investments to win support for its bid, two people close to the situation said. News Search ID:nL6N0M149W

The French government will want to discuss terms of any sale by Vivendi of the mobile telephony business, Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg said on Tuesday. News Search ID:nL6N0M12FW

** Nivea skin cream maker Beiersdorf AG BEIG.DE is positioned for takeovers having completed a restructuring and has 2.5 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in cash for possible buys, its Chief Financial Officer Ulrich Schmidt said on Tuesday.

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** Sugar and cocoa trade house Sucres et Denrees (Sucden) said on Tuesday it was buying commodity merchant Coffee America in a deal that is expected to be completed on March 31.

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** Customer services group Teletech Holdings TTEC.O has acquired Bulgarian outsourcing company Sofica Group for an undisclosed sum, Teletech said. News Search ID:nL6N0M11HG

** Germany's Evonik EVKn.DE has acquired U.S. silicic acid ester maker Silbond Corp, with the purchase price in the mid-double digit million euro range, Evonik said on Tuesday.

News Search ID:nWEB00JNI

** Valve-control systems maker Rotork Plc ROR.L , fresh from a string of acquisitions that underpinned profit growth last year, has agreed to buy South Korean firm Young Tech Co Ltd for 64 million pounds. News Search ID:nL3N0M125P

** The ruling family of Ras Al Khaimah, one of the seven United Arab Emirates, is exploring a sale of its shares in Ras Al Khaimah Ceramics RKCE.AD , a major maker of ceramic wall and floor tiles and sanitary ware, a source familiar with the matter said.

The source declined to give a value for the possible sale but said the ruling family wanted to sell a minimum of 25 percent of the company and conceivably all of its stake. News Search ID:nL6N0M14IC

** Glencore Xstrata GLEN.L said that Minmetals is the preferred bidder for its Peruvian copper mine, Las Bambas, an asset it agreed to sell to secure approval from China's competition authorities for its takeover of miner Xstrata.

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** Just Eat, an online takeaway service expected to seek a stock market listing this year, has bought rival Meal2Go to improve the electronic point of sale technology it can offer its thousands of partner restaurants. News Search ID:nL6N0M12QN

** Tereos, the world's fourth-largest sugar maker, has dropped plans to sell shares in its cane and grains business in Paris so it can concentrate on improving trading activity in its Brazil-listed shares, its chief executive said. The French farmers' cooperative announced in 2010 that it would spin off the businesses in a branch called Tereos Internacional SA

TERI3.SA via offerings on both the Sao Paulo and Paris stock markets.

($1 = 1.12 Australian dollars)

($1 = 3.49 Israeli shekels)

($1 = 0.60 British pounds)

($1 = 0.73 euros)

(Compiled by Shubhankar Chakravorty and Shivani Mody in Bangalore)

((shubhankar.c@thomsonreuters.com)(within U.S. +1 646 223 8780)(outside U.S. +91 80 6749 3428)(Reuters Messaging:)(shubhankar.c.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: DEALS DAY/