1. A group led by Apollo Global Management (APO) is acquiring El Paso Corp.’s (EP) oil and natural gas exploration business for $7.2 billion.

2. CVC Capital Partners, the buyout firm that owns Formula One, is paying $2.4 billion for Stockholm-based Ahlsell to expand into the wholesale supply of tools, machinery, and building products.

3. Blackstone Group (BX) will invest $2 billion in a $10 billion natural gas liquefication plant being planned by Cheniere Energy Partners (CQP), operator of the largest U.S. natural-gas-import terminal.

4. Thailand’s only listed oil and gas explorer, PTT Exploration & Production, bid $1.7 billion for African explorer Cove Energy (COV), trumping an offer from Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A).

5. Banco Santander (STD) is buying KBC Groep’s (KBC)Kredyt Bank (KRB) in a transaction that values the bank at $1.4 billion. Santander will combine Kredyt with its own Polish unit.

6. Abbott Laboratories (ABT) will pay Galápagos (GLPG) as much as $1.4 billion for rights to an experimental drug for rheumatoid arthritis.

7. Houston-based Linn Energy (LINE) will pay $1.2 billion for BP’s (BP) natural gas holdings in the Hugoton Basin in Kansas. BP plans to sell assets worth $38 billion by the end of next year.

8. Motorola Solutions (MSI), which split in two a year ago following pressure from investors led by Carl Icahn, repurchased $1.2 billion of its stock from the billionaire investor and some of his affiliates.

9. Boston Properties (BXP) is buying Bank of America’s (BAC) skyscraper at 100 Federal St. in Boston for $615 million, adding to a portfolio that includes the John Hancock Tower and Prudential Center.

10. A collection of 15 Oscar statuettes sold for more than $3 million at auction. The Best Original Screenplay Oscar won by Herman Mankiewicz for Citizen Kane fetched $588,000.

Bloomberg (3)