Alternative asset manager Carlyle Group has introduced its first two publicly listed mutual funds, paving the way for Carlyle to offer its investment platform to retail investors, Reuters reported.

After a mistaken bet on US Treasuries, assets of Pimco Total Return Fund sank by $41.1 billion last year, making it fund's worst showing in nearly two decades, Reuters reported.

JPMorgan Chase & Co settled a lawsuit brought against it by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh involving the losses it sustained from mortgage securities it bought from the bank, Bloomberg reported.

The private equity industry worldwide was able to reach $431 billion in fundraising last year, an increase of 13% from the funds raised in 2012, a Preqin study revealed.

Citing sources, Bloomberg reported that Singaporean lender Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp or OCBC has submitted a binding offer for Hong Kong-based family-run lender Wing Hang Bank Ltd.

Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore said Telefonica is planning a joint offer of TIM Brasil, the local wireless unit of Telecom Italia, Reuters reported.

Oil & Natural Gas Corp or ONGC said it would be spending about $9 billion in the next ten years to produce oil found in new blocks in the east coast of India.

Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation Ltd is planning to list its real estate investment trust or REIT, Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Singapore-listed company intends to raise more than $400 million for its data center businesses.

With its 25.2% gain, activist investor Daniel Loeb's Third Point beat rivals in 2013, Reuters reported. Loeb's hedge fund stayed in line with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index which rose 29.6% in the same period.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd said it will be exiting a part of its Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern line to Genesee & Wyoming Inc for a price tag of $210 million.

Sources told the Financial Times that billionaire George Soros has bought a 3.1% stake in Spanish builder FCC. The acquisition happened just three months after Microsoft's Bill Gates also made a bet on the company.

The rising use of mobile computing has prompted the development of fresh technology startups around the world as international entrepreneurs hope to get a share of the markets for tablets and smartphones, the Financial Times reported.

Investor demand for shares of auto lender Ally Financial has grown as evidenced by the increasingly high prices paid for them in recent private transactions, sources told Reuters.

Through a joint venture formed with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co formed in 2012, US-based Silicon Valley Bank looks to meet the demand of investors for China funds.

VentureBeat reported that 2013 was a good year for venture capital firms as it was the third quarter in a row when there were more than 20 venture-backed companies that held their public debuts.

Chinese founders of technology firms that have become billion dollar firms have gone on to start other companies or act as benefactors of other startups or give guidance to young firms, the Financial Times reported.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said it would be ramping up its efforts against brokers who sell high risk products like emerging market "frontier" funds to investors of lesser means, the Financial Times reported.

Delmarva Bancshares Inc, the bank holding firm for the National Bank of Cambridge, was able to raise $11 million in a private placement participated in by a group which included Castle Creek Capital.

Square 1 Bank completed the acquisition of Silicon Valley-based Sand Hill Finance, a financing solutions provider for emerging growth firms. Financial terms about the transaction were not disclosed.

The Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index showed that small businesses in the US increased their borrowings in November 2013 compared to that of the previous year, Reuters reported.

TheMarker, a financial news website, said generic drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is set to name Erez Vigodman as its new Chief Executive on January 13 at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, Reuters reported.

The hacker group who called themselves the Syrian Electronic Army said they were the ones that attacked the social media accounts of Microsofit-owned Internet calling service Skype, Reuters reported.

The top dealmaker for Canadian retail mergers and acquisitions for 2013 is the Royal Bank of Canada, data from Bloomberg revealed. RBC has held the top spot for the third straight year.

The outflows of Jeffrey Gundlach's DoubleLine flagship fund in December last year amounted to $2.08 billion, according to research firm Morningstar's data, marking the seventh month in a row that investors have withdrawn money from the fund.

Japan Australia LNG Pty, the venture formed by Japanese firms Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsui & Co, will not proceed with a prior deal to buy liquefied natural gas from Woodside Petroleum Ltd's Browse venture.

Billionaire Warren Buffet is most likely going to fail in achieving his target for the first time since he took over Berkshire Hathaway in 1965, Bloomberg reported.

The African private equity industry in Africa may be young and subject to various shortcomings but political stability, infrastructure growth and increasing consumer activity has given it a more positive outlook for this year, the Financial Times reported.

The Wall Street Journal reported that institutional investors will best remember 2013 as a year of record gains, as buoyant markets facilitated IPOs and debt deals that paid hefty dividends.

Data from Cambridge Associates showed that 2013 was a good year for private equity as they returned $120 billion to their institutional backers, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Indian companies were able to get private equity deals worth $10.68 billion in 2013, an increase of 12% in value terms compared to that of the previous year.