British Airways and Spain’s Iberia are in talks to create the world’s third-largest airline and inject some “long-overdue” consolidation in the industry, in the words of BA CEO Willie Walsh.

Where would a combined BA-Iberia leave American Airlines, which was in talks to form a transatlantic alliance with the two airlines? Would a BA-Iberia merger scuttle American’s chances at an alliance?

The argument for forming an alliance and seeking an antitrust waiver was that the “Open Skies” agreement — which frees up restrictions on carriers flying between the United States and Europe — is set to increase transatlantic competition among airlines. That’s a harder pitch to sell if a BA/Iberian merger, creating Europe’s largest airline, shrinks the number of major players in the market.

Getting regulatory approval for the alliance was uncertain to begin with. An immunized alliance between American, the largest U.S. airline, BA, Europe’s third-largest carrier, and Iberia, Spain’s largest airline and the biggest operator of flights to Latin American player, would create the most extensive network between Europe and the Americas.

To make things even more complicated, British Airways has 40 percent of takeoff and landing slots at Heathrow, by far the largest share of any airline. In 2006, BA and American held over half the capacity between Southeast England and the United States between them.

In the past, BA and American have tried to form an alliance and failed. U.S. antitrust authorities  asked the carriers to give up some slots at Heathrow if they wanted approval, but the airlines did not want to part with the slots. Times have certainly changed since — fuel prices have skyrocketed and the economy has weakened — but the same requirements for Heathrow would likely apply again.

What’s American to do? U.S. airlines have lost more than $35 billion in the past few years. Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines have agreed to merge, creating a formidable competitor as the world’s largest airline. And United and Continental have also agreed to a plan of global co-operation .

If BA and Iberian are off the table, an alliance with another carrier could be American’s best shot at surviving this downturn. US Airway, we’re looking at you.

Deutsche Bank’s latest writedown comes with a reality check – the global credit crisis it had largely fought off is still snarling away. The top German bank’s $3.6 billion in fresh writedowns come with a reversal of optimism from CEO Josef Ackermann. “We remain cautious for the remainder of 2008,” he said as his bank became one of the world’s top crisis casualties. As late as November, Ackermann had been suggesting no further writedowns would be necessary, and had stood by a 2008 pretax profit goal of 8.4 billion euros. Now, with no indication that the books are completely cleaned of toxic paper, further write-offs seem a lot less unlikely and that full-year profit goal is going quietly by the wayside.

Japan’s TDK Corp said it plans to buy German electronic parts manufacturer Epcos for $1.9 billion in cash, as it pursues growth overseas and seeks to expand sales of industrial-use components. TDK said in a statement it would launch a friendly tender offer for all shares of Frankfurt-listed Epcos, offering 17.85 euros ($27.81) per share, a 29 percent premium to the closing price on Wednesday and valuing the deal at 1.2 billion euros. TDK said the offer would begin at the end of August. The acquisition is expected to boost TDK’s global market share of capacitors and inductors just as price falls hit earnings at rivals such as Murata Manufacturing and Kyocera, analysts said.

Global lender HSBC is likely to stand firm on its $6.3 billion bid to buy Korea Exchange Bank from U.S. private equity firm Lone Star as a formal deadline looms, cheered by a more accommodating South Korean government. The long-running deal, mired in outstanding legal issues, is seen as a test of whether South Korea is genuine in its pledge to open its financial sector wider to international investors. A successful deal would be the biggest cross-border move in South Korea’s banking sector and catapult HSBC into the ranks of the country’s top local banks.

Other deals of the day:

* Swedish media company Modern Times Group said it had signed a deal to buy Nova TV Bulgaria for 620 million euros ($966 million) in cash, expanding its reach in eastern Europe.

* Serbia is to go ahead with the sale of up to 51 percent of JAT Airways valuing the flag-carrier at about 100 million euros ($156.2 million), said the country’s privatization agency.

* Finland’s Atria has agreed to buy loss-making pigs-to-pizza group Campomos in Russia from Spanish Campofrio Alimentacion for 75 million euros ($116.9 million), it said.

* Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo is yet to receive Indian regulatory approval for an open offer for Ranbaxy Laboratories, and so will not launch it on Aug. 8 as previously planned.

* Indian plastic products maker Sintex Industries said its unit has acquired 90 percent in German auto component maker Geiger technik GMbH, at an enterprise value of 35.6 million euros.

Chemical maker Huntsman Corp’s second-quarter earnings have triggered a new round of sparring with its disgruntled suitor, Hexion Specialty Chemicals.

Hexion, a unit of Apollo Management, jumped on Huntsman’ssecond quarterresults, saying they showed that a material adverse change had occurred in Huntsman’s financial condition. Hexion has claimed the $6.5 billion purchase of chemicals maker Huntsman is no longer feasible and the combined company would be insolvent. The two companies have already filed lawsuits against each other.

Hexion said Huntsman’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) had dropped 19 percent from prior year and its net debt — adjusted for asset sales — was more than 25 percent higher than a year ago.

“These results further demonstrate that Huntsman has suffered a material adverse effect which is the primary reason why the combined company would be insolvent if the transaction were to be completed based on the agreed capital structure,” Hexion said. “Huntsman has provided no information to support its assertion that the combined company would be solvent.”

For its part, Huntsman remained upbeat and said it had been “encouraged by the recent moderation in crude oil and natural gas prices” and it expected adjusted EBITDA in the second half of the year to be stronger than both the first half of this year and the second half of 2007.

Huntsman Chief Executive Peter Huntsman said he hopes litigation with Hexion will be resolved by mid-September, after an expedited hearing. The trial is scheduled to begin on September 8.

Stay tuned.

Drumroll, please: Almost two years after radio station and billboard company Clear Channel Communications began exploring strategic options, its $17.9 billion takeover finally closed on Wednesday.

The deal, slowed by legal battles in two states and negotiations to lower the purchase price, became a symbol of the buyout industry’s glory days and the subsequent struggles of the credit crunch.

Clear Channel had agreed to be acquired by private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners last year. The market quickly changed and credit to fund the acquisition became more costly and difficult to secure.

The buyout firms had agreed to buy Clear Channel for $39.20 per share, but were forced to file lawsuits in New York and Texas to ensure that a syndicate of six banks would still fund the deal. In May, the bank syndicate, the private equity buyers and Clear Channel struck a deal to lower the price to $36 per share.

And now Clear Channel’s stock will cease trading at the end of the day. Phew!

Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio also closed their merger this week after struggling for 526 days, or 17 months, to gain regulatory approval. The new Sirius XM Radio, with more than 18.5 million subscribers, is now the second-largest radio broadcaster after Clear Channel.

The next marathon wait? Shareholders of BCE Inc, the Canadian telecommunications company, must wait until Dec. 11 for the long-awaited $34.1 billion deal to close. Of course, that’s more than five months from now — who knows what could happen?

Two takes from the latest data on U.S. M&A activity so far: The Europeans are coming like never before — and buying their beer here — and the credit crunch has really taken the pizzazz out of the ‘p’ in private equity.

The latest numbers from Thomson Reuters show that so far in 2008, about one-third of U.S. targets were acquired by foreign companies, up from 19 percent in the same period last year.

The weak dollar and slumping stock prices of U.S. companies has created a window of opportunity for international buyers to snatch up American icons.

European companies accounted for more than one-fourth, or $196.9 billion, of U.S. target M&A volume, the highest year-to-date percentage ever, the data shows. The year-to-date volume of these transactions already exceeds full-year volumes of the last eight years.

With financing for large leveraged buyouts still scarce, private equity firms have been quieter. Globally, private equity-backed deals have plummeted, accounting for just 10 percent of total deal volume so far this year, compared to 24 percent in the same period last year.

But amid the broad slowdown of deal activity, consumer staples companies, which include deals like InBev’s offer for Anheuser-Busch and Mars buy of Wrigley, stood out. The deal volume in that sector so far this year has surpassed the figure from the year-ago period, the data shows.

Clearly, that’s something to chew over, err, drink about, umm, have a smoke over …

(Photo credit: Reuters)