The ruthless efficiency and smooth execution that marked Reliance Industries’ development of the world’s largest refining complex in western India and its vast gas fields off the country’s east coast has eluded the top-listed Indian firm during its recent attempts at overseas takeovers.

Nevertheless, Mukesh Ambani, the world’s fourth-wealthiest man and the chairman of Reliance, is know for his doggedness and is unlikely to backpedal on his overseas ambitions after being rebuffed by two overseas firms — bankrupt petrochemicals maker LyondellBasell and oil sands firm Value Creation.

A source tells us that Ambani now has his eyes set on the booming Marcellus Shale in the eastern United States, and wants to form a joint venture with Atlas Energy to develop the independent U.S. oil and gas firm’s operations in the gas project.

A deal could bring in more than $1 billion for Atlas, which will be a much smaller price than what Reliance was willing to pay for LyondellBasell, which was valued at about $14.5 billion by the Indian firm’s final offer. Lyondell rejected it saying the price was not high enough.

Analysts thought the exact opposite. They worried Reliance was overpaying for Lyondell, and were flummoxed about what synergies the company hoped to achieve by buying a bankrupt petrochemicals maker. In fact, investors in Reliance heaved a sigh of relief when the deal was called off.

Ambani seemed to have won even in defeat.

Analysts suggested Reliance target foreign oil and gas assets — many of which are on the selling block in the wake of the global financial crisis – as these would help feed the company’s massive refinery in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

If it succeeds in shaking hands with Atlas, Reliance could be treated to a tasty slice of the Marcellus Shale, which spans parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York in the United States and, according to some geologists, could hold enough natural gas to satisfy U.S. demand for a decade.

Reliance had earlier made a $2 billion offer for Canada’s Value Creation, but lost the race for the oil-sands developer to Britain’s BP. Analysts say Value Creation may not have been an ideal target anyway as oil-sands development is an expensive undertaking.

The Marcellus Shale seems a much more suitable pick by Reliance, and Ambani may just be third-time lucky.

Here’s the latest twist in the General Growth saga: Simon Property says it is weighing a higher bid for its smaller, bankrupt rival and could come up with something within a week.  That’s not surprising.

When General Growth investors Bill Ackman and Fairholme Capital Management stepped up with $3.3 billion of fresh capital to shore up a Brookfield Asset Management-backed plan, Simon lost the edge it had with unsecured creditors. The unsecured creditors stand to get cash under both plans now. And experts said it was too early for Simon to walk away from the game.

For now, Simon is trying to take away General Growth’s excuses for rebuffing its bid.

General Growth raised questions about Simon’s funding for a deal. So Simon said it is rallying support from Blackstone Group and sovereign wealth funds, and putting together a $6 billion credit line from JP Morgan.

General Growth asked if Simon would offer stock to General Growth’s equity owners. So Simon said it would be open to the bankrupt company doing due diligence on Simon to help it evaluate Simon’s equity.

Simon is also planning to structure any revised bid in a way that makes it directly comparable to the split company deal that General Growth has proposed. The idea is an apples-to-apples comparison will allow for negotiations on other substantive issues.

It is also urging General Growth to not give its backers warrants worth hundreds of millions of dollars, which would make it that much more expensive for Simon to buy the company.

It seems, then, that the fight for General Growth’s future still has some rounds left to go.

Pfizer will on Wednesday place an offer in the final round of bids for German generic drug maker Rati0pharm, a person briefed on the matter told us yesterday. Israel’s Teva and smaller Icelandic peer Actavis had been requested to make final bids on Thursday at the latest, sources had previously said. Read the Reuters story here.

Australia’s Arrow Energy has opened its books to Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina for them to conduct due diligence for their joint takeover offer worth at least $3 billion our sources tell us. Read our story here.

Bharti Airtel looks set to land its $9 billion purchase of Zain’s African assets, overcoming a stumbling block posed by an ownership spat over Zain’s Nigerian units. A team of bankers from UBS — which is advising Zain — visited Nigeria with Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal last week.  The two parties had worked their way around the problem, sources tell us, though they did not say how. Exclusivity expires on March 25.

For all further deals news on Reuters, click here. And elsewhere in media:

San Miguel Corp plans to raise $1 billion by selling stakes in its food, packaging and liquor businesses to fund the Philippines’ biggest food and drinks maker’s growth and acquisitions, Bloomberg reports.

French software group Atos Origin  is considering buying RBS WorldPay, an electronic payments unit of part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland, Le Figaro newspaper reports.

China’s homegrown automaker Zhejiang Geely Holding is facing financing and technology hurdles in its bid to pay up to $2 billion for Ford ’s Volvo car unit and the likelihood of a short-term deal is low, China Daily reports.