Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions

(Adds Mehilainen, A2A, CVC Capital, Noor Financial Investment)

May 16 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Wednesday:

** Buyout fund CVC Capital Partners held talks with Italian drugmaker Recordati over a possible 8 billion euro ($9.4 billion) takeover, but has put the deal on hold due to concerns about the hefty price tag and political uncertainty, three sources familiar with the matter said.

** The Redstone family sought to amend CBS Corp's bylaws to prevent its board of directors from issuing a special stock dividend that would eliminate much of its voting power, as a court room showdown between them loomed.

** Kuwait's Noor Financial Investment said on Wednesday a foreign financial firm has shown interest in buying part of its stake in Pakistan's leading Islamic lender Meezan Bank.

** Saudi British Bank (SABB) and Alawwal Bank have agreed a merger to create Saudi Arabia's third-biggest lender, in a $5 billion deal that marks the first major banking tie-up in the kingdom in two decades.

** Private equity firms are expected to submit final bids this week for Finnish healthcare company Mehilainen, which is expected to fetch over 1.56 billion euros ($1.84 billion), banking sources said.

** Paddy Power Betfair, is considering merging its U.S. business with fantasy sports company FanDuel to target the U.S. sports betting market, the Irish bookmaker said.

** A six-way merger of local Italian utilities got its final go ahead on Wednesday in a deal that will involve A2A launching a takeover bid on smaller peer ACSM-AGAM.

** U.S. packaging company International Paper will not make a hostile bid for Irish rival Smurfit Kappa, it said after being given until June 6 to make a binding offer.

** China's Tianqi Lithium is nearing a deal to buy a 24 percent stake in Chile's Sociedad Quimica Y Minera (SQM), one of the world's biggest lithium producers, for about $4.3 billion, two people close to the transaction said.

** TPG's growth investment arm has raised its stake in Tanium Inc with a $175 million investment, valuing the U.S. cyber security start-up at about $5 billion, people familiar with the matter said.

** Hearing aid makers Widex and Sivantos are merging to create an industry number three that can invest more in digital devices and step up the challenge to market leaders Sonova and William Demant.

** Vietnam's trade ministry said it is considering launching a formal investigation into the takeover of Uber Technologies' Southeast Asia business by rival Grab after an initial probe showed the deal would violate antitrust law.

** Beijing Properties said its logistics subsidiary plans to sell its equity interests in properties worth about 6.42 billion yuan ($1.01 billion) to an offshore fund that will be set up with Warburg Pincus-backed ESR Cayman.

** Indonesia's Asia Pacific Resources Group, known as April Group, entered exclusive talks to acquire Brazilian pulpmaker Lwarcel Celulose Ltda, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

** China Resources Pharmaceutical Group Ltd said it is in talks with the provincial government of the southeast province of Jiangxi to acquire a controlling stake in Jiangzhong Group.

** Brazilian steelmaker Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) plans to sell up to 4 billion reais ($1 billion) in assets by the end of the year, in addition to an already announced $400 million U.S. sale, Chief Executive Officer Benjamin Steinbruch told analysts.

** Britain's Competition and Markets Authority said it will examine whether a takeover of Lonmin by South Africa's Sibanye-Stillwater would reduce competition, knocking shares in both mining firms.

** French electronics retailer Fnac Darty and Germany's MediaMarktSaturn said they had signed a memorandum of understanding to create a European retail alliance on purchasing, in a bid to boost their efficiency.

** The Montenegrin government paid a first tranche of 68.9 million euros ($81.6 million) to buy Italian company A2A's stake in the Balkan country's power utility EPCG .

** Top animal health company Zoetis Inc will buy Abaxis Inc for $1.9 billion, as it looks to capture a bigger slice of the fast-growing market for veterinary diagnostics services.

** U.S. crop handler Bartlett and Company, which exports American grain to Mexico, will merge with logistics provider Savage Companies, the firms said, in the latest round of consolidation to hit the struggling agriculture sector.

** The most likely scenario for investor General Atlantic to exit ProSiebenSat 1's Nucom e-commerce division would be for the German broadcaster to buy back its stake, ProSieben CFO Jan Kemper said. ($1 = 0.8474 euros) (Compiled by Akshara P in Bengaluru)