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GE Capital, through its bank affiliate GE Capital Financial Inc., announced Tuesday that it was buying MetLife’s U.S. retail deposit business. Terms of the deal were not released. The deal is expected to close in mid-2012.

Equity One Inc. has paid $23.2 million to acquire Old Connecticut Path, a 80,000 square foot shopping center, as part of a joint venture with New York State Common Retirement Fund. Equity One is a developer and operator of shopping centers. New York State Common Retirement Fund has $146.5 billion in assets.

Global Environment Fund has added three to its team: Dwight O'Donnell joins the firm’s forestry team as a senior investment partner. Nick Morriss joins as a senior investment partner. Peter Tynan joins as managing director of sustainability. Global Environment Fund is a Washington, DC-based private equity firm founded in 1990.

Marc Coucke, the founder and chief executive of Belgian health products distributor Omega Pharma, has succeeded in a $1.1 billion takeover of the company, Reuters reported. Coucke's investment vehicle, Couckinvest, now owns 91.32% of the company, which sells non-prescription products to pharmacists.

Working Opportunity Fund announced that it has provided a $10 million credit facility to BCC Lending Services Ltd., an affiliate of Beedie Capital Partners. Beedie Capital is a investment firm based in Vancouver.

Reliance Communications, the Indian mobile phone carrier, is in the final stages of talks to sell its tower unit to private equity firms the Carlyle Group and the Blackstone Group, Reuters reported, citing the Times of India. The deal could be worth as much as $4 billion, Reuters reported.

The Carlyle Group said on Monday it has named Kazuhiro Yamada as co-head of its Japanese operations, replacing Masao Hirano, who will resign from the private equity firm, Reuters reported over the weekend. Hirano leaves the company at the end of the year, and will become a senior advisor to Carlyle and an independent consultant.

Middle-market private equity firm Gryphon Investors has acquired a majority stake in Riverside, Calif.-based K&N Engineering, a provider of air and oil filtration products for the automobile industry. Terms of the deal were not released.

Sony Corp. is selling its nearly 50% stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics to the South Korean company for $940 million, Reuters reported over the weekend. The seven-year-old venture cut its capital by 15% in July and industry sources had said Sony was negotiating an exit, aiming to switch to cheaper outsourcing for flat screens for its TVs while Samsung pushes ahead with next-generation displays, Reuters wrote.

Exor SpA, the investment company of Italy's Agnelli family, has agreed to sell its travel and tourism company unit Alpitour to private equity funds Wise SGR SpA and J. Hirsh & co., Reuters wrote Friday. Terms of the deal were not released.