News: RIO Deals of the day-Mergers and acquisitions

July 17 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers, acquisitions and disposals were reported by 0930 GMT on Monday:

** Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky neared victory in a battle to take over French retailer Casino CASP.PA after rival bidders pulled out of the race, paving the way for a deal to rescue the debt-laden group and save it from bankruptcy.

** Banco BPM BAMI.MI shares rose as much as 2.7% after Italy's third-largest bank said it would sell 71.6% of its card and shopowner payments operations to private equity fund FSI for 500 million euros ($561 million) in cash and shares.

** Belgium's Proximus Opal, which provides cloud-based telecom platforms for enterprises, said it would buy a near-58% stake in Route Mobile ROUT.NS for about 59.22 billion rupees ($721 million), at par with its Indian peer's current market value.

** Ladbrokes-owner Entain ENT.L agreed to acquire U.S.-based Angstrom Sports for 122 million pounds ($159.5 million) as it looks to widen its footprint in the country.

** Shares in Gresham House GHE.L rallied 56% after Searchlight Capital Partners agreed to buy the British asset manager for 469.8 million pounds ($614.9 million) in cash.

** Pakistan Refinery Limited PKRF.PSX and Air Link Communication AIRL.PSX are seeking to buy a stake in Shell Pakistan SHEL.PSX , the companies said in a notice to the stock exchange (PSX).

** Australia's Sovereign Metals (SVM) said global miner Rio Tinto (RIO) RIO.L agreed to buy a 15% stake in the company and work closely with it to develop a rutile and graphite project in Malawi.