Financial Times

* Entertainment One is exploring strategic options which could include a sale; the FTSE-listed company is considering interest from a number of private equity companies.

* Standard Life has accused Piedmont, the investment vehicle of the Bahamas-based currency trader Joe Lewis, of creating instability in the board of pub company Mitchells Butlers before making an “insulting” takeover approach; MB has already rejected the takeover approach from Piedmont.

* Mitch Rales, one of the world’s richest men and co-founder of Colfax, is wooing top British investors in Charter International to back the US manufacturing group’s £1.5 billion bid for the FTSE 250 engineering company.

* Canopius, a privately owned Lloyd’s of London insurer, has countered this week’s tender offer for a quarter of Omega Insurance by launching a full cash takeover offer for its smaller rival.

* Anglo American chief executive Cynthia Carroll has downplayed speculation that the multinational miner is on the hunt for acquisitions.

* Hewlett-Packard has extended the deadline for its £6.7 billion takeover for Autonomy.

* National Express has acquired an Ohio-based bus operator, Petermann Partners, for $200 million from Macquarie Global Opportunities Partners, the private equity buy-out group.

* Manchester United is planning to raise up to two-thirds of a planned $1 billion initial public offering in Singapore through non-voting preferences shares.

* Talgo, which manufactures railway cars for Spain’s high speed train network, has put plans for a stock market listing worth up to €1bn on hold until next year.

* Volkswagen is likely to acquire the other half of Porsche’s car business that it does not currently own.

The Lex Column