(Adds Bentley Systems, TAQA, Hipgnosis Songs Fund ( HPGSF ))

April 18 (Reuters) - The following bids, mergers,

acquisitions and disposals were reported by 1945 GMT on

Thursday:

** Nashville-based independent music company Concord has

agreed to buy Britain's Hipgnosis Songs Fund ( HPGSF ) for $1.4

billion, the companies said, to gain rights to the catalogues of

artists including Shakira and Neil Young.

** Coventry Building Society has offered to buy Britain's

Co-operative Bank for 780 million pounds ($971 million) in cash,

in the latest attempted tie-up among UK lenders jostling for

market share amid fickle demand for loans.

** U.S. law firms Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders and Locke

Lord said they are in talks to merge, in what would be the

largest law firm combination to emerge so far this year.

** Europe's biggest private equity firm CVC Capital Partners

has approached accounting giant Ernst & Young (EY) in a bid to

buy its Italian consulting arm, the Financial Times reported on

Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

** An effort to force TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, to

sell the social media app or face a ban in the U.S. was gaining

steam in Congress , with the House of Representatives setting a

vote for Saturday and a key Senate Democrat voicing support for

the move.

** Bentley Systems ( BSY ), an engineering software company

with a market value of about $15 billion, is exploring options

that include a sale after attracting acquisition interest,

according to people familiar with the matter.

** Israel's Nilit, a maker of 6.6 nylon fibres for the

apparel industry, has formed a joint venture with China's Shenma

Industry Co that will significantly expand production capacity

within the Asian country, it said.

** Mexican state oil firm Pemex has agreed to hand over

control of its Lakach natural gas project in the Gulf of Mexico

to Grupo Carso, a company belonging to Mexican billionaire

Carlos Slim, El Heraldo columnist Dario Celis reported.

** Spain's Energy Minister Teresa Ribera said that it was

still too early for the government to evaluate a potential stake

in Spanish energy firm Naturgy in view of a possible

takeover bid by Abu Dhabi's TAQA

** Sri Lankan telecom operator Dialog Axiata has

signed a definitive agreement to buy Bharti Airtel's

operations in the island nation, the companies said, nearly a

year after the merger was announced.

** French media group Vivendi's Canal+ said on

Thursday that it has bought 3.7 million shares in South African

broadcaster MultiChoice to increase its stake to

40.83%.

(Reporting by Priyanka.G and Pratyush Thakur in Bengaluru)