(Adds Getty, Haniel, Leumi, Discovery, Standard Life Aberdeen; Updates Eldorado Brasil)
Sept 4 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 2000 GMT on Tuesday:
** The Getty family said it would acquire Carlyle Group's CG.O majority stake in photo agency Getty Images Inc. German investment group Haniel FHANI.UL could sell its 25 percent stake in consumer electronics retailer Ceconomy CECG.DE if the right offer came along, its chief executive Stephan Gemkow said. Israel's Accountant General launched the sale of the government's remaining 5.37 percent stake in Leumi LUMI.TA , the country's second largest bank, the Finance Ministry said in a statement. Discovery Ltd DSYJ.J has agreed to buy banking group FirstRand's FSRJ.J 25.01 percent stake in a financial joint venture for $120 million, paving the way for the South African insurer to launch its own bank later this year. Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) SLA.L , which earlier this year agreed to sell most of its insurance business to Phoenix Group PHNX.L , raised its stake in Phoenix to almost 27 percent, a filing showed. Oil and gas producer Southwestern Energy Co SWN.N agreed to sell its Fayetteville shale assets in Arkansas to privately owned Flywheel Energy LLC in an all-cash deal for about $1.87 billion, Southwestern said. Brazilian pulp producer Eldorado Brasil Celulose SA said parent company J&F Investimentos SA had exercised its right to cancel a contract to sell 50.59 percent of Eldorado, according to a securities filing. Drilling rig contractor Transocean Ltd (NYSE:RIG) RIGN.S said it would acquire peer Ocean Rig UDW Inc ORIG.O in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $2.7 billion, including debt. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank ADCB.AD and Union National Bank UNB.AD said they were in three-way merger talks that included Al Hilal Bank in a deal that could form a lender with $113 billion in assets. Investa Office Fund IOF.AX said that Canada-based Oxford Properties Group had offered A$3.3 billion ($2.4 billion) for acquiring the property manager, edging out an earlier offer from private equity firm Blackstone (NYSE:BX) Group BX.N . U.S.-Israeli billionaire Shari Arison said she will sell off her controlling stake in Israel's largest bank, Hapoalim POLI.TA , to the public after failing to find a strategic partner to share control of the business. The Chinese government is exploring a merger of two of the nation's top wireless carriers - China Unicom 0762.HK and China Telecom 0728.HK - to speed up the development of 5G mobile services, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. French re-insurer Scor's SCOR.PA board turned down a friendly takeover offer from privately held insurance company Covea, with investors anticipating that a higher bid would materialise. Switzerland's SIX has agreed to take over Germany's Swiss Euro Clearing Bank GmbH, which connects the main euro clearing systems and processes payment transactions in euros for banks and financial institutions in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc 8750.T said it would buy Suncorp Life, an Australian life insurance unit of Suncorp Group Ltd SUN.AX , for A$640 million ($460 million), in the latest overseas expansion for a Japanese insurer grappling with a shrinking domestic market. ICU Medical Inc's ICUI.O new offer to buy British engineering firm Smiths Group Plc's SMIN.L medical division for 2.8 billion pounds ($3.60 billion) was rejected by Smiths' board, Sky News reported. A private equity fund run by Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) Asset Management (GSAM) GS.N has bought a minority stake in multi-strategy hedge fund firm LMR Partners, one source familiar with the matter said. Castlelake LP, a U.S.-based investment fund, is planning to acquire stakes in distressed Brazilian sugar and ethanol companies, a source with direct knowledge of the plans said.