June 29 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1000 GMT on Thursday:
** Dubai's Majid Al Futtaim MAAFUM.UL , which operates the franchise of French retailer Carrefour CARR.PA in the Middle East, has acquired 26 Geant hypermarket stores in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait from BMA International. The China National Machinery Industry Corp (Sinomach) will merge with The China High-Tech Group, the country's state asset regulator said, part of China's ongoing efforts to slim down its bloated state sector. Rio Tinto RIO.AX , RIO.L shareholders approved the sale of a suite of Australian coal assets to China-backed Yancoal Australia YAL.AX for $2.69 billion, ending a bidding war with commodities trader Glencore GLEN.L . Western Digital Corp WDC.O said legal action and other moves taken by Toshiba Corp 6502.T in their dispute over the sale of its prized memory chip unit were harming Toshiba's stakeholders and customers. Finnish pension insurance companies Ilmarinen and Etera will merge to form Finland's largest private sector pension insurer, the companies said. Britain's biggest retailer Tesco TSCO.L and its takeover target Booker BOK.L have asked the UK competition regulator to "fast track" examination of their 3.7 billion pound ($4.8 billion) deal to a more detailed second stage, they said. DS Smith Plc SMDS.L , a maker of corrugated cardboard, recycled paper and plastic packaging, said it would buy 80 percent of Interstate Resources, a corrugated packaging business, for $920 million, giving it an entry into the American market. U.S. private equity firm Lone Star Funds is making a renewed push to sell corporate bank IKB IKBGga.F , one of the highest-profile German casualties of the financial crisis, according to a person close to the matter. Dutch insurance group EXIN agreed to buy a 75 percent stake in Greek lender National Bank's (NBG) NBGr.AT insurance subsidiary for 718 million euros ($820.17 million), it said. German plastics and chemicals group Covestro 1COV.DE pledged it would return cash to shareholders if it cannot find a suitable major takeover target within two years as it eyes 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion) in total operating cash flow after investments over the next five years.