Business news for Sun, 23 Dec 2007 & with words acquire+million. 2 news.

RUPERT Murdoch's News Corp is to sell eight of its Fox network-affiliated television stations in the United States to Oak Hill Capital Partners LP for about US$1.1 billion in cash. The sale leaves Fox with 27 owned-and-operated stations and will probably be completed in the third quarter, New York-based News Corp said on Saturday. Oak Hill will add the stations to nine existing ones, according to its Website, Bloomberg News said. News Corp is selling the assets to focus on its largest and most lucrative markets following the US$5.2 billion takeover of Dow Jones & Co this year. The purchase will help Oak Hill, the buyout firm founded by Texas oil billionaire Robert Bass, create a broader US network after it paid US$575 million to acquire stations from New York Times Co in May. "It is part of News Corp's strategic decision to shed low-growth, non-core assets," said Richard Dorfman, managing director of New York-based investment firm Richard Alan Inc. Network television

AXA, France's largest insurer, has agreed to acquire a 36.7-percent stake in Reso-Garantia, Russia's second-largest insurance firm, for 810 million euros (US$1.16 billion). The investment is expected to add to Axa's earnings within three years, the Paris-based company said in a statement. The insurer will have the option to buy the rest of the company through calls exercisable in 2010 and 2011, according to Bloomberg News. Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service gave Dresdner Bank AG, the banking arm of insurer Allianz SA, regulatory approval to buy a controlling stake in Reso on August 14. The next day, news service Vedomosti reported that Dresdner had decided instead to hold onto its Reso shares as collateral for a loan to its holding company. On May 29, Reso-Garantia said it will sell a 20-percent stake in the first public offering of stock by a Russian insurer. The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development said earlier that it was buying a 10-percent stake in