Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Monday April 21, 2014

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Monday April 21, 2014.

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Shares of Allergan

surged higher Monday, as Pershing Square's Bill Ackman and Valeant Pharmaceuticals

announced that Valeant will make an offer to acquire Allergan. Valeant reported in an 8-K that they intend "to propose a merger in which the Issuer's shareholders will receive a combination of cash and Valeant common shares. Valeant has not yet determined the amount of cash and number of Valeant common shares it will offer, but it currently expects the cash component will total around $15 billion." Bill Ackman reported in a 13-D filing, a 9.7% stake in Allergan. Barclays and Royal Bank of Canada have indicated financing commitments covering the cash portion of the transaction at the time Valeant makes an offer, according to the filing. Allergan shares closed Monday at $142 and traded as high as $175 after-hours, while Valeant shares closed at $126.01 and traded over $147 after-hours.

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Shanda Games

announced Monday that Shanda Interactive Entertainment Limited has entered into a share purchase agreement, under which Perfect World

will acquire a total of 30,326,005 class A ordinary shares of Shanda Games for $100 million in cash. Perfect World has also entered an agreement to become a member of the consortium, which has proposed to acquire Shanda Games in a "going private" transaction for $3.45 per ordinary share of Shanda Games, or $6.90 per ADS. Perfect World closed Monday at $19.78, a gain of 1%. Shanda Games closed at $6.71, gaining more than 1%.

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Hillshire Brands

and Catterton Partners announced Monday that Hillshire Brands has agreed to acquire Van's Natural Foods from Catterton Partners for $165 million. The deal is expected to close in May 2014. Hillshire Brands closed at $35.85 on Monday, a loss of $0.26.

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Chindex International

announced Monday that the buyer consortium, which includes an affiliate of TPG, Fosun Industrial and Ms. Roberta Lipson, the CEO of the Company, and a merger subsidiary of the Buyer Consortium, increased the offer for Chindex from $19.50 to $24.00 per share in cash. On April 14, Chindex had received a bid of $23.00 per share from another buyer. That buyer declined to raise their offer. The merger is expected to close in H2 2014. Chindex International closed at $23.63 on Monday, a gain of 3%.