ICBC is in talks to buy a roughly 20 percent stake in Cathay Financial, Taiwan's biggest listed financial holding group, in a deal that could be worth more than $3 billion, according to Reuters. The stake purchase could be one of the first cross-straits deals since a financial co-operation
pact was signed in November.

Taiwan's Fubon Financial Holdings and several U.S. private-equity firms are bidding for Morgan Stanley's 34.3 percent stake in China International Capital Corp, the mainland
investment bank, according to people familiar with the situation. The stake could fetch more than $1 billion.