acquisition

Chinese financial company CITIC has bought a 13 percent stake of aluminium producer Alumina (ASX:AWC) for $452 million.

• China based company Citic, will purchase more than 366 million new Alumina shares.
• Citic is a Chinese government owned investment company.

Franchise chain operator, Retail Food Group (ASX:RFG) have requested its shares on the ASX stockmarket be suspended ahead of planned capital raising.

• Retail Food Group's capital raising will set a floor price of $2.80 per share, issuing 13.6 million shares and raise $38 million for the company.
• The capital raising will be conducted by Petra capital and will be sold to institutional and sophisticated investors.

Australian airline carrier, Qantas (ASX:QAN) have sold its 50 percent shareholding of StarTrack Express to Australia Post.

• Qantas will receive $408 million from selling its 50 percent stake in road freight business, Star Track Express to Australia Post.
• Previously, Qantas and Australia Post owned 50 percent each of both Star Track Express and Australian Air Express.

Australian retail giant, Woolworths (ASX:WOW) has sold Dick Smith Electronic to Anchorage Capital Partners for $20 million.

• In the ASX stockmarket announcement, Woolworths said that it had signed a share sale agreement for 100 percent of the Dick Smith Electronics subsidiary to Sydney based Anchorage Capital Partners.
• Dick Smith electronics has 325 stores with 4,500 employees.

The marathon six month takeover battle for Alesco Corporation (ASX:ALS) by DuluxGroup (ASX:DLX) is looking more likely to go ahead. Alesco has been placed in a trading halt.

• Alesco Corporation, the takeover target, has placed its shares on a trading halth ahead of talks with DuluxGroup about its $210 million takeover bid for the company.

Building contractor and engineering services company, Leighton Holdings (ASX:LEI) is selling its telecommunications assets, with TPG Telecom (ASX:TPM) and Telstra (ASX:TLS) have expressing interest in acquiring the NextGen assets.

Middle Eastern airline, Etihad Airways have increased their holdings in Virgin Australia (ASX:VAH). Etihad bought 221 million shares on the ASX stockmarket.

• Etihad chief executive officer James Hogan said, "We are very pleased to have reached this threshold. We support the management strategy of Virgin Australia and will continue to work closely with them on ways to improve our business."
• Etihad doubles ownership stake in Virgin Australia to 10 percent.

Country Road (ASX:CTY), a designer, wholesaler and retailer of apparel has reported that it has acquired clothing retailer, Witchery Australia Holdings Pty Ltd for $172 million. Witchery includes the 40 year old Witchery brand and Mimco accessories brand, together they have 306 shop fronts Australia wide.

Grocery wholesaler, Metcash (ASX:MTS) has held 50.1 percent of Mitre 10 for more than 2 years and has paid $46.5 million for the remaining share. The acquisition of the remaining 49.9 percent stake includes over 400 Mitre 10 and True Value retail shopfronts as well as distribution rights to over 400 independent unbranded hardware shops.

Australian agricultural chemicals maker Nufarm (NUF) expands its seeds business by buying the American sunflower seed company Seeds 2000 for $53.83 million. Sunflower is an important oilseed and snackfood crop to the company as it produces 32 million metric tonnes of grain every year.