MERGERS/DEALS (UPDATE 3)

** Sven Ley, the son of Escada founder Wolfgang Ley, has teamed up with the former head of Gucci, Giacomo Santucci, and Italian investment group Borletti to mount a rescue bid for the German luxury fashion house Escada <ESCG.DE>.

Ley's consortium, ZSL Partners, has offered to pay almost 80 million euros for the fashion house, guaranteeing a minimum price of 50 million euros, a person close to the matter told Reuters. [ID:nL3593108]

** British wealth manager St James's Place Plc <SJP.L> favours a market placing of Lloyds Banking Group's <LLOY.L> majority stake to avoid a trade sale or private equity buyout, the company said. [ID:nL2116825]

** Sweden's Vattenfall [VATN.UL], operator of Germany's fourth-largest utility, agreed in principle to the sale of its German power grid, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. [ID:nWEA8407]

** GP Investments <GPIV11.SA>, the largest Latin American private equity firm, will exit its investment in Brazilian shopping mall operator BRMalls <BRML3.SA> to focus growth on other business units, O Estado de S. Paulo said, citing people with knowledge of the situation. [ID:nN03232081]

** India's Essar Oil <ESRO.BO> said its exclusive talks with Royal Dutch Shell Plc <RDSa.L> to buy three of the global oil major's European refineries will run until Nov 30. [ID:nDEL298848]

** Britain's two largest retail lenders are to get another 31 billion pounds from the government and have agreed to sell hundreds of branches and key businesses to appease EU competition concerns over state aid. [ID:nL3540088]

** Britain's Renewable Energy Holdings <REH.L> is considering taking action against fellow renewables company Novera Energy <NOEN.L> after the latter made an error in a shareholder document.

In a circular last week setting out the reasons why they should reject a 90.5 million pound takeover bid from private-equity backed Infinis, Novera incorrectly stated that REH was in the process of selling off all its assets. [ID:nL3304284]

** Shares in South Africa's Wesizwe Platinum Ltd <WEZJ.J> rose 5 percent on Tuesday on talk that the company could be a takeover target of Impala Platinum <IMPJ.J>, the world's No 2 producer of the metal. [ID:nL3537151]

** Singapore's state investor Temasek [TEM.UL] will pump 284.7 billion won to buy shares in South Korean light emitting diode company Seoul Semiconductor <046890.KQ> and its affiliate. [ID:nSEO35282]

** Russian-born tycoon Len Blavatnik has acquired a British cinema distribution business from Hollywood star Mel Gibson, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported. [ID:nL3519498]

** Belgian banking and insurance group KBC <KBC.BR> is scouring the market for potential buyers of its European private banking activities, Belgian daily De Tijd reported citing sources. [ID:nL3529431]