Takeover speculation was rife today with Guinness owner Diageo (LON:DGE) and telecoms giant Vodafone (LON:VOD) at the centre.
Rumours began circulating in the US on Friday that Jorge Paulo Lemann, the Brazilian billionaire behind investment firm 3G Capital, was interested in Diageo.
Most recently, 3G teamed with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in a deal to merge Heinz with Kraft Foods.
The move had, at its heart, ownership of mature, well-known brands and products of the type Diageo (LON:DGE) has in abundance.
The Brazilian press first leaked the story that Lemann, who has a stake in Diageo’s rival Anheuser-Busch InBev, was interested in the firm. Shares in the Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff group rose 115p to 1,875p.
Meanwhile, the increasing talk of a tie-up between Vodafone and its American counterpart Liberty Global refuses to die down.
Last week, Vodafone said it was in talks to swap assets with Liberty, but reports over the weekend suggest Liberty is still eyeing up a full-blown merger.
Vodafone’s shares rose 1% to 244p on the speculation.
Elsewhere, weekend reports suggest BT (LON:BT.A) could become a takeover target for Deutsche Telekom as an international telecoms merger frenzy intensifies.
The German giant is in advanced talks to merge its T-Mobile US business with Dish Networks, and if all goes well, the likelihood of a BT merger will increase.
Shares in BT climbed 4.5p to 443p on the speculation.
In smaller merger news, coal mining minnow (LON:ARMS) has had a renewed offer from Asia Coal Energy Ventures.
It brings to an end a five-year foray into the Asian coal market for UK businessman Nat Rothschild, whose NR Holdings has agreed to sell its 17.2% stake in the company.
The offer was increased to 56p per share, or £23mln, from 41p per share. Despite the 35% premium, shares eased 2% on the news to 36p today.
Away from potential mergers, the FTSE 100 was flat, recording a 3 point loss to 6,802 by lunch.
Concerns over whether or not Greece will default on its payments this month, having already deferred Friday’s payment to the International Monetary Fund, continue to weigh on the index.
Sitting at the bottom of the index were supermarkets as Morrisons (LON:MRW) said it has slashed the price of 200 items including milk, butter and bread.
The news is an admittance that the supermarket is suffering from the surge in popularity of discounters Aldi and Lidl, and online shopping.
Shares in Morrisons eased 1.3% to 171p while investors also saw the news as a bad sign for rival Tesco (LON:TSCO) which was down 1.5% to 202p.
In small caps, Sierra Leone focused mining group Sula Iron & Gold (LON:SULA) revealed its chief executive Nick Warrell had been awarded the title of 'Best European CEO in the Mining Industry 2015', by the publication European CEO.
Warrell has written an article about mining in Sierra Leone as it emerges following the ebola crisis and the iron ore price fall, which can be read in this month's edition of the European CEO magazine. Shares in Sula added 1.75% to 1.45p on the day.
Armadale Capital (LON:ACP) was the biggest gainer of the day, jumping 145% to 0.055p on news it has secured a US$20mln project finance deal to bring to its Mpokoto gold mine in DRC into production.