Cameco Corp. (NYSE: CCJ) has pulled out of an auction for Canadian mining company Hathor Exploration, after Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO) increased its bid to C$654 million. www.hathor.ca
Irish Life & Permanent has suspended its efforts to sell life insurance unit Irish Life due to market conditions. The deal could have been worth in excess of $2 billion.
Asahi Kasei Pharma Corp. of Japan has acquired Artisan Pharma Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based biopharma whose lead candidate is intended to treat severe sepsis patients with coagulopathy. No financial terms were disclosed. Artisan had originally been spun out of Asahi Kasei by VC firms NGN Capital and Jafco Ventures. www.artisanpharma.net
Korea Electric Power Corp. plans to sell up to $294 million worth of shares in its engineering and construction subsidiary via a public offering, according to IFR.
Senior PLC (LSE: SNR) has acquired Weston EU Ltd., a British maker of machined components for the commercial aerospace market, for around £54 million from family shareholders.
Temium (NYSE: TX) of Luxembourg has agreed to acquire a 14% stake in listed Brazilian steelmakerUsiminas for around $2.2 billion.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. plans to sell around $2.5 billion worth of stakes in other companies, including its minority stake in mobile phone company KDDI, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Validus Holdings has withdrawn its $3.2 billion offer for fellow reinsurer Transatlantic Holdings (NYSE: TRH), after Transatlantic accepted a $3.4 billion cash and stock offer from Alleghany Corp. (NYSE: Y).
Yandex (Nasdaq: YNDX) has acquired SPB Software, a mobile software maker with offices in Russia, Thailand and Taiwan. No financial terms were disclosed, but TechCrunch puts the deal value at approximately $38 million.