The Traderszone Network

Initial bids for the unit which offers mortgages and business loans to health-care providers were due June 18, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE also received offers from Ares Management LP (ARES.N) and Ventas Inc (VTR.N), Bloomberg reported.

Citigroup Inc (C.N) will combine its retail banking and mortgage operations under Jonathan Larsen, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters, in the second senior promotion for a veteran of the bank’s Asian franchise this year. The U.S. bank’s Asia Pacific chief Stephen Bird in April became the global head of Citi’s consumer bank, in a move seen by analysts as rewarding the U.S. lender’s strategy in the region. Larsen, currently global head of retail banking, previously ran Citi’s Singapore unit and spearheaded the lender’s push in credit cards in Asia.

Shares of Zoetis, whose pipeline includes medicines and vaccines for pets and livestock, were up 2 percent at $56.65 in extended trading. The company, spun off from Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) in 2013, was valued at $24.85 billion as of Thursday’s close, according to Thomson Reuters data. Both Valeant and Zoetis spokesperson declined to comment.

Oil prices were little changed in thin trade on Friday, with investors focusing on talks aimed at averting a Greek debt default. Brent crude for August delivery was up 19 cents at $63.39 a barrel by 0334 GMT (1134 EDT)after ending the previous session down 29 cents, or 0.5 percent. “Traders and investors are very much on tenterhooks on the outcome (of talks on Greece),” said Ben Le Brun, a market analyst at OptionsXpress in Sydney.

The company also raised its sales growth forecast for the current fiscal year, helping send its shares up 3.3 percent to $108.70 in extended trading on Thursday. Nike’s orders for delivery from June through November, a gauge of demand it calls “futures orders”, rose 13 percent excluding currency fluctuations at the end of the fourth quarter. “Extremely impressive across the board,” said Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough.

James Murdoch, who will take the helm of Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA.O) next week, said there was little he and his father Rupert did not agree on with respect to the future of the family media empire. While James and Lachlan are said by company sources to have a good relationship and approach the business as partners, the dual-reporting line could prove to be confusing and a source of tension, analysts have said. “The family is obviously a big shareholder in the business, so we are all really invested in each others’ success,” said Murdoch.

Market players are optimistic the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will help fill Asia’s infrastructure funding gap.