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TransCanada Corp , Canada's No. 2 pipeline company, said on Monday it will sell its Cancarb Ltd unit, a carbon black manufacturer, to Japan's Tokai Carbon Co for C$190 million ($173.5 million) in order to focus on expanding its pipeline business. Cancarb, located in Medicine Hat, Alberta, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) southeast of Calgary, is the world's largest producer of thermal carbon black, an industrial material used in tires, printer inks and other goods. The sale includes Cancarb's 41-megawatt power plant, which sells electricity to Medicine Hat's power grid. TransCanada plans to use the proceeds to fund its pipeline growth strategy, which includes the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to take oil sands crude from northern Alberta to U.S. refiners and the 1.1 million barrel per day Energy East pipeline to take Western Canadian oil to the Atlantic Coast. "The proceeds from this sale will help fund TransCanada's unprecedented capital growth pl

European stocks inched lower in thin trade on Monday, slipping from 5 1/2-year highs as Deutsche Bank's surprise quarterly loss prompted investors to cash in recent gains on banking stocks. Shares in Germany's biggest lender, which had not been due to release results until Jan. 29, sank 5.4 percent, wiping about 2.2 billion euros ($3 billion) off its market capitalisation. The bank announced a drop in fixed-income trading revenues and heavy litigation and restructuring costs, which prompted it to warn about a challenging 2014. Commerzbank fell 4.5 percent, Banco Popolare dropped 3.1 percent and Credit Suisse shed 2.5 percent. "The figures of Deutsche Bank are surprising and there's no end to be seen, and therefore we are kind of critical about the conditions of the banking sector," said Oliver Roth, head trader at Close Brothers Seydler. "I think we have seen the bottom of the crisis, but I don't see the end of the crisis. Therefore I see much more

The Panama Canal Authority (PCA) has turned down an offer by the European Commission to mediate in a multi-billion dollar dispute with a Spanish-led construction consortium which threatens to halt work on widening the century-old waterway. The consortium, known as Grupo Unidos por el Canal (GUPC), had threatened to suspend work by Monday unless the Panama Canal Authority (PCA) paid $1.6 billion in cost overruns on one of the world's largest construction projects. But on Sunday the group backed down from the threat. The European Commission said on Monday GPUC, led by Spanish builder Sacyr, had requested mediation by the European commissioner for industry Antonio Tajani, who accepted. But the PCA immediately rejected it. "The contract over a third set of locks has already mechanisms to resolve disputes and none of them includes the intervention of a third party," PCA said in a statement. "This will only be dealt with in accordance with what the contract says,&qu

French utility GDF Suez had takeover approaches for Canada-based Talisman Energy rebuffed late last year as it seeks acquisitions worth as much as $10 to $20 billion outside Europe, banking and industrial sources said. _0"> GDF's financial advisers have reviewed a number of sizeable acquisitions, including U.S.-based utility AES, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation, as Chief Executive Gerard Mestrallet eyes a transformational deal before his retirement in 2016. GDF, Talisman and AES declined to comment.

JPMorgan is suing Berlin's public transport provider in a British court to recover the $204 million plus interest it says it is owed over an "unfortunate" derivatives contract taken out before the financial crisis. The lawyer for the U.S. bank said Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) was looking for anyone other than itself to blame for the losses on the collateralised debt obligation (CDO). "Rather than simply accepting that it had been unfortunate in the events that happened in the financial markets... BVG has decided to follow a course doing everything it could to avoid paying its debts... casting around for someone to blame other than itself," Laurence Rabinowitz told a London court on the first day of the trial. Problems arose simply because the transaction occurred just when serious cracks in the world's financial system were appearing, Rabinowitz added. BVG, which runs the German capital's underground railway, tram, bus and ferry networks, argue

Activist investor Elliott Management Corp has raised its stake in German drug distributor Celesio and now controls shares equivalent to 24.08 percent of voting rights, regulatory filings to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Monday showed. _0"> New York-based hedge fund Elliott, which previously controlled shares with less than 20 percent voting rights, declined to comment. Earlier this month Reuters reported market talk that Elliott was adding to its stake after the failure of an $8.4-billion Celesio bid from McKesson Corp. McKesson had raised its offer for Celesio following pressure from Elliott, Celesio's second-largest shareholder behind Franz Haniel. But the U.S. drugs wholesaler failed to get across a 75 percent threshold for acceptances it had set as a condition. In the disclosure filing on Monday, Elliott revealed it also holds convertible bonds which give it access to an additional 7.93 percent voting stake, giving the hedge fund a theoretical voting stake of 32

China's Lenovo Group Ltd has resumed discussions to buy International Business Machines Corp's low-end server unit, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The two companies were in discussions to buy the division last year, but no deal was made as they couldn't agree on a price, sources have said. It was unclear how far along the more recent talks were, or what prices were being considered. An IBM spokesman said on Monday the company wouldn't comment on the report, nor on similar reports in other media outlets. Bloomberg, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter, said Lenovo was in serious discussions to buy the unit and that a deal may be signed within weeks. The Wall Street Journal, also citing unnamed sources, said Dell Inc may be among the potential buyers, though it was unclear how serious Dell was. Dell went private in a $25 billion deal last year, following prolonged troubles at the computer maker. IBM's x86 server business sells s