(Adds Shire , Kroton Educational)
Oct 23 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Friday:
** Pharmaceutical firm Shire SHP.L said it was still going ahead with its attempt to buy U.S. company Baxalta BXLT.N . Shire went public with its proposal to buy Baxalta in August after failing to generate much excitement among Baxalta's board for its plan to forge a global specialist in rare diseases.
** Brazil's Kroton Educational SA KROT3.SA agreed to sell its Uniasselvi university to the Carlyle Group (O:CG) LP CG.O and Vinci Partners for 1.1 billion reais ($282.4 million), a newspaper reported on Friday, though the company said no sale deal for the university has been signed.
** Corn Flakes maker Kellogg Co K.N is in late-stage talks to buy snack foods company Diamond Foods Inc DMND.O for more than $1.5 billion, the New York Post reported, citing sources.
** Singapore's biggest lender DBS Group Holdings DBSM.SI and South African banking group FirstRand FSRJ.J are in separate talks to buy Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc's RBS.L India unit, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
** London's Baltic Exchange and Chinese state-owned Ningbo Shipping Exchange said they would collaborate on container indices, the first foray by the Baltic into this segment of the freight market.
** Struggling printer maker Lexmark International Inc LXK.N said it was exploring strategic alternatives and had hired Goldman Sachs (N:GS) Inc GS.N to advise it on the process.
** Greece has pushed back the date to submit binding bids for a majority stake in its biggest port Piraeus OLPr.AT to Dec. 3, the head of its privatization agency said.
** Speculation of a tie-up between Chilean bottling company Embotelladora Andina and larger Mexican peers Femsa and Arca Continental has no basis in fact, according to comments from an executive at the Chilean company published in a paper.
** Russian natural gas exporter Gazprom GAZP.MM has selected Germany's Linde LING.DE as a partner to build a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) export terminal in the Russian Far East, a Linde spokesman said.
** Australia's antitrust regulator raised concerns about Halliburton (N:HAL) Co's HAL.N proposed $35 billion buyout of rival Baker Hughes (N:BHI) Inc BHI.N , in another setback for a deal that has already hit competition snarls in the United States.
** TreeHouse Foods Inc THS.N is in advanced talks to acquire Ralcorp, the private label business of ConAgra Foods Inc (N:CAG) CAG.N , in a deal that could be valued between $2.5 billion and $2.7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
** Australian oil and gas producers Beach Energy BPT.AX and Drillsearch Energy Ltd DLS.AX agreed to a billion dollar merger, the day after Santos rejected a $5 billion offer, signaling the industry's fortunes may be bottoming.
** Kidney dialysis specialist Fresenius Medical Care FMEG.DE is buying Israel-based peer Nephromor for about 350 million shekels ($90 million), German business paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing industry sources.
** Uchumi Supermarkets UCHM.NR said it planned to sell and lease back two properties in the Kenyan capital to help raise capital, the latest move in a turnaround plan.
** Chinese express parcel delivery firm Shentong (STO) Express is planning a 'back-door' listing through a deal that would see it take over a publicly traded firm in Shenzhen, a company executive told Reuters.
** Hedge fund Raging Capital is urging investors in EZchip Semiconductor Ltd EZCH.TA to vote against a proposed takeover, arguing that the company's stock price can more than double in the next two years if it stays on its own.