Benzinga's M&A Chatter for Monday December 21, 2015

The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Monday December 21, 2015:

:

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp

, or SinoPec, is considering a bid for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

, according to a source familiar with the matter, as reported by

on Monday. HSBC will be financing the deal, the source said. China Petroleum and Anadarko did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Anadarko shares traded as high as $47.72 Monday, following the report and closed at $46.55, a gain of 1.9%.

:

Pep Boys

announced Monday, that on December 20, 2015, its Board of Directors determined that a proposal, received on December 18 from Icahn Enterprises L.P.

to acquire Pep Boys for $16.50 per share in cash, constitutes a "superior proposal" as defined in the company's agreement and plan of merger with Bridgestone Retail Operations, LLC. Pep Boys announced their intention to terminate the Bridgestone agreement, following a three business day period that will expire at 5:00 PM New York City time on Wednesday, December 23, 2015. The agreement with Bridgestone was for $15.50 per share in cash. Pep Boys rose 6.92% Monday, closing at $16.85.

:

Medigene AG

announced Today, that Amgen Inc.

will acquire 100% of Medigene spinoff Catherex, Inc., USA, for an upfront payment of $10.5 million. Medigene will also be entitled to milestone payments upon achievement of certain regulatory and sales-based milestones for Amgen's drug Imlygic plus royalty payments on the sale of Imlygic until the end of 2020. The deal is expected to close in early 2016. Amgen closed at $159.28 on Monday, a gain of $0.48.

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Shares of Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc

spiked higher Monday following a tweet from Charles Gasparino of FOX Business Network. Gasparino tweeted that the company's investors could be pushing for a sale to private equity. Whitney Tilson announced Lumber Liquidators as a short idea at the Robin Hood Conference on November 22, 2013. Shares fell that day from a high of $115.95, to a low of $11.62 on August 6, 2015. A "60 Minutes" segment in February of this year, mentioning that the company's Chinese laminate flooring had unsafe levels of formaldehyde, sent shares plummeting further. Tilson announced on December 15, 2015 that he had covered his short position in the stock. Lumber Liquidators closed at $16.22 on Monday, a loss of 2.76%.

:

Western Refining, Inc.

and Northern Tier Energy LP

announced Monday, that thaey have agreed that Western will acquire all of NTI's outstanding common units not already owned by Western for $15.00 in cash and 0.2986 of a share of WNR common stock for each NTI common unit held. The deal is expected to close in H1 of 2016. Northern Tier Energy closed at $24.28 on Monday and traded as high as $26.50 after-hours.