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Deals of the day- Mergers and acquisitions

(Adds Darden Restaurants, Fidelity, Lanco Infratech, Twenty-First Century Fox, Reliance Industries, Unicredit and Tieto) Oct 10 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Friday: ** India's Reliance Industries Ltd is seeking a buyer for its stake in the Eagle Ford Basin oil and natural gas joint venture with Pioneer Natural Resources Co, a sale that could raise as much as $4.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. ** South African financial services group Old Mutual Plc is in advanced talks to acquire Quilter Cheviot, one of Britain's biggest independent wealth managers, for about 650 million pounds ($1 billion), Sky News reported. ** Polish insurer PZU has received permission from Lithuania's competition watchdog to buy Lithuanian rival Lietuvos Draudimas AB, PZU said late on Thursday. State-run PZU agreed to buy Lietuvos Draudimas as part of a 360-million-euro ($457 million) deal struck earlier this year. ** Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox and Apollo Global Management LLC agreed to combine three of their TV production companies behind hit shows such as "Big Brother", "American Idol" and "Masterchef" under one group. ** Activist shareholder Starboard Value LP won its standoff with Darden Restaurants Inc, convincing shareholders to replace the entire board of the Olive Garden parent, a rare victory for dissident investors. ** Indian infrastructure firm Lanco Infratech Ltd is in talks with investors to sell a stake in its Griffin coal mine in Australia and some road projects, it said on Friday, as part of its strategy to pay down a hefty debt burden. ** Italy's UniCredit plans to go ahead with the sale of its bad loans unit and aims to finalize a deal by the end of November, two sources familiar with the deal said on Friday. ** Fidelity Investments, the largest shareholder in Actavis Plc, has increased its holdings in takeover-target Allergan in recent months and would be supportive of a potential merger between the two drugmakers, according to people familiar with the matter. ** Finnish technology firm Tieto and European private equity firm Apax are among the bidders for Evry, one of the Nordic region's largest IT services companies, four sources familiar with the matter said on Friday. ** Britain, Germany and the Netherlands have asked prospective buyers for their jointly-owned nuclear fuel enrichment firm Urenco to submit indicative bids by year-end, sources familiar with the process said. ** Former Lehman Brothers Holdings Chief Executive Richard Fuld Jr and OpenMatch Holdings are involved in a deal to buy the Jersey City-based National Stock Exchange (NSX), the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. ** China's Fosun raised its offer for Portugal's Espirito Santo Saude (ESS) to 5.01 euros a share from 4.82 on Thursday, above U.S. firm United Health's offer of 5 euros made directly to the bankrupt Espirito Santo family. ** Volkswagen will extend its joint venture with China FAW Group Corp by 25 years, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. ** Nordjyske Bank and Norresundby Bank , both based in the north-western part of Denmark, plan to merge into Nordbank from Jan. 1, they said. ** India's third-largest steelmaker JSW Steel is nearing a deal to buy embattled West African iron ore miner London Mining, a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations said. ** Denmark's Jyske Bank said it had bought 255 million crowns ($43 million) worth of shares in DLR Kredit , raising its stake in the mortgage lender to 12.61 percent. ** Indonesian telecommunication infrastructure firm PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure Tbk said it would get a 49 percent stake in PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk's tower operator unit Mitratel under a share swap deal. ** Fininvest, the holding company of Silvio Berlusconi, must sell a 20 percent stake in Mediolanum because Italy's central bank no longer considers the former prime minister fit to own more than 10 percent of a financial company. ** European Union antitrust regulators will decide on U.S. medical device maker Zimmer Holdings Inc's $13.4 billion bid for Biomet by March 11, a three-week extension from the previous deadline, the European Commission said on Friday. ** Blackstone Group LP said it would spin off its M&A, restructuring and private equity fundraising advisory businesses and combine them with the financial advisory firm of Morgan Stanley veteran Paul Taubman, in a move to avoid conflicts. ($1 = 0.79 euro) ($1 = 0.62 British pounds) (Compiled by Yashaswini Swamynathan and Anet Josline Pinto in Bangalore)