London’s bankers were hardly in celebratory mood last night, post-Darling, but Financial Times unit mergermarket persevered with their 2009 M&A awards, crowning Lazard financial adviser of the year for working on deals such as BGI-Blackrock and Glaxo-Stiefel, and lauding Swiss drugmaker Roche for its $47 billion buyout of Genentech. See the extensive list of winners — including Financial Adviser of the Year, Visegrad Group [that's the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia] — here.

Curiously, though, there was nothing for Morgan Stanley — the No. 1 bank year-to-date for announced M&A globally and in the United States, according to Thomson Reuters data. And arch-rival Goldman Sachs was awarded just for its work in Germany, while Europe’s top M&A house in 2009, Deutsche Bank, also went empty handed.

Thomson Reuters magazine Acquisitions Monthly hosts its bash in January.

Thursday’s top stories:

Dubai’s Emaar Properties (EMAR.DU) says it will not merge with Dubai Holding’s property units, a move analysts said protected the developer from Dubai Holdings’ vulnerable debt position.

Sempra Energy (SRE.N) may join Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS.L) in selling off their entire joint commodities business, offering quick entry into a lucrative market with a diverse, global trading book.

When AOL Inc Chief Executive Tim Armstrong rings the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, he hopes to put behind one of the most disastrous mergers in corporate history. The question is, Yinka Adegoke writes, whether investors will take to the newly independent Internet company, especially since the spin-off was structured so the first holders of the stock are Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) shareholders.

And George Chen and Michael Flaherty say while the allure of raising a Chinese currency fund is strong for private equity firms, setting up a yuan fund risks alienating private equity’s most prized stakeholders: U.S., European, and Middle Eastern pension funds and fund-of-funds, which have committed billions of dollars to the buyout industry over the last decade.

For the rest of the latest deal-related news from Reuters, click here.

And elsewhere:

Citigroup Inc plans to pay back TARP by raising money in an equity offering that could be announced as early as Thursday and could be some $20 billion, television network CNBC reports, citing sources. Reuters story here.

Hershey Co. and the philanthropic trust that controls it are nearing a final decision on whether to bid on candy maker Cadbury, the WSJ says, adding that the two sides—Hershey management and the trust’s board—are tilting toward making a bid but haven’t made a final decision.

Alliance Boots is setting its sights on overseas expansion as it looks to build on progress since its £12.4bn buy-out with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in 2007, the FT says.

Blackstone Group Chief Executive Stephen Schwarzman says that although financing conditions in the leveraged loan business have improved “enormously” in the past few months,  the market is still tight enough to keep the “bozos” at bay.
 
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs US Financial Services Conference, Schwarzman said “now it’s easier to get money, but it ain’t easy.”
    
There’s still enough work for private equity firms to do — syndicating their own deals and cobbling together small parcels of money to get deals done — that it keeps the market sane, Schwarzman said.
    
“What we don’t want is to have too much money around and have the prices run up and then have the bozos able to do deals again. When every fool can get rich, it doesn’t work well for firms like ourselves.”

As far as investment opportunities, Schwarzman said “It’s a  very interesting time to be investing. A lot of imperfections in the environment we can take advantage of.”

After a slow 2009, the pace of takeovers in the industrial sector should pick up next year as sellers rein in their once-lofty price expectations, a top executive at diversified U.S. manufacturer SPX Corp said on Wednesday.

“Price expectations have declined, particularly for smaller acquisitions, by as much as one to two turns of cash flow,” Patrick O’Leary, SPX’s chief financial officer told an investor briefing. “People’s forward models are more realistic because they’ve been through a difficult 12 months.”

Major U.S. manufacturers came into 2009 thinking that the brutal recession and credit crunch would provide them with ample opportunities to snap up companies at bargain prices. But the pace of deal-making slowed to a crawl for much of the year as sellers and buyers remained far apart on price.

That has started to change during the fourth quarter, with companies including United Technologies, Emerson Electric and Danaher all reaching deals. While investment bankers remain wary about the prospects for 2010 deal-making, O’Leary said he sees things picking up.

“You will see an elevated level of M&A across industrials for 2010 and ‘11,” he predicted.