CRH has acquired Shelley the US aggregates group for £226m as part of a strategy to expand its building materials business in the Midwest... [more]

Avro Industries has bought Almond Engineering the Scottish supplier of thermoformed plastic packaging to the food sector... [more]

Gameplay.com is to acquire Computec Media the German publisher of computer magazines for £48m... [more]

Gyrus is to acquire Everest Medical Corporation the US manufacturer of surgical equipment for £32m which will give it access to a 105-strong US salesforce... [more]

Tilbury Douglas has sold its Scottish house building business to Persimmon for £23m in order to focus on service-related activities. ... [more]

Penspen is acquiring Andrew Palmer & Associates the offshore pipeline engineering specialist for £1m... [more]

UKae the Sutton Coldfield-based supplier of double glazing parts has undergone a £8m management buy-out... [more]

Rank has sold Pinewood Studios to a consortium backed by 3i for £62m which could be followed by the sale of its remaining film-related activities... [more]

Royal London the mutual life and pensions group is set to acquire United Assurance in a £1.6bn deal creating an enlarged group with premiums of £1bn and more than 3m customers... [more]

Smiths Industries is to acquire Actuation Systems the US-based aircraft utilities business from BAE Systems for £63m... [more]

Ocean Group has announced plans for a £3.2bn merger with NFC in order to create a major new logistics group called Exel... [more]

Rank is selling its chain of 75 Odeon cinemas to Cinven for £280m and the business will be merged with Cinven's 57 ABC cinemas... [more]

Airtours is acquiring Travel Services International of the US for £240m which will help to improve its internet booking capability... [more]

Border Construction has bought Finlaysons the Galashiels-based roofing and joinery business from the Lothian and Borders Co-operative Society... [more]

Wrights of Horwich the Bolton-based wholesaler has been bought out of receivership by Five Star Foods for undisclosed terms... [more]

CGU and Norwich Union are planning a £18bn merger to create a leading supplier of general insurance life and pensions and up to 4000 job losses are expected to follow... [more]

Alphameric is acquiring Pennine Retail the supplier of IT systems to retailers for £60m... [more]

Courtaulds Textiles is to sell its Standfast and Weavestyle furnishings operations to Walker Greenbank for £9m and is now looking to sell Zorbit nursery products and Christy towels... [more]

Unigate has agreed to merge its dairy and cheese operations into Dairy Crest leaving it free to focus on the expansion of its convenience foods business in Europe... [more]

ED&F Man is to sell off its commodities trading business to a management team for £587m and the remaining financial services business will be renamed Man Group... [more]