Universal Music is poised to file with Brussels for approval of its £1.2bn takeover of EMI’s recorded music arm as early as this week.

The US bank Citi has started talks with EMI's pension trustees to put cash into the scheme, which could cost it up to £200m.

Terra Firma, the private equity firm controlled by the City financier Guy Hands, is among a small number of buy-out companies that have submitted second-round bids of up to £300m to acquire the Garden Centre Group (GCG).

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Chaucer, the Lloyd's of London insurer, has agreed to sell itself to Hanover of the US for £313m after losses mounted from the Japanese earthquake and other natural disasters.

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Just days after losing the music giant EMI, Guy Hands's investment vehicle Terra Firma is back in pursuit of a deal – in the rather less glamorous world of insurance.

Outlook The EMI saga is finally drawing to a close. Having taken control of the music company, Citigroup will presumably offload it to the highest bidder, finally removing the uncertainties under which the company's employees and performing artists have been labouring since Terra Firma's takeover began to go so badly wrong.

Terra Firma, the private equity firm run by Guy Hands, is to challenge a US court ruling it was not conned into paying too much for music business EMI in a £4.2bn deal three years ago.

This is no time to be a builder – why does he look so cheerful?

Doughty Hanson has agreed to buy Vue Entertainment, Britain's third-biggest cinema chain, in a deal believed to be worth £450m, including debt.

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If it weren't worth billions, the trial would sound like a schoolyard spat, with childhood nicknames and allegations of lying. Stephen Foley reports