Separately, Ford Motor Co, plans to sell its shares from its controlling stake in Japan’s Mazda Motor Co, a second source said.

Finally, Barron’s reported that GM was preparing to approach the U.S. Federal Reserve about borrowing money from the central bank’s discount window because of the logjam in credit markets that has shut it out of other kinds of borrowing.

The moves come as all three Detroit-based automakers are struggling with a plunge in U.S. sales to 15-year lows and facing tough questions from investors and creditors about whether they have the cash to ride out a deepening downturn.

Representatives of Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm that owns an 80.1-percent stake in Chrysler, were not immediately available for comment.

Chrysler and GM declined comment. Ford representatives could also not be immediately reached.

Cerberus is also in exploratory talks with other parties, including Renault-Nissan, to sell Chrysler, the source said.

But any deal would hinge on the completion of the sale of Daimler AG’s remaining 19.9-percent stake in Chrysler to Cerberus, the source said. Cerberus last month said it had approached Daimler to buy that remaining stake.

Chrysler’s private owners and GM have had “very early” and “very exploratory” talks about a merger, the source said.

The talks between GM and Cerberus, first reported by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, began more than a month ago and are not certain to produce a deal.

The Journal said that Cerberus had proposed a swap of assets with GM that would give the private equity firm full ownership of finance company GMAC.

In exchange, GM would get the loss-making auto operations of Chrysler, the newspaper said.

Cerberus currently owns 51 percent of GMAC, GM’s former captive finance company which has been hobbled by its exposure to the U.S. mortgage market. GM owns the remainder of GMAC.

LONG PROCESS

The reported talks between the two sides would revive discussions between Chrysler and GM about a potential merger in early 2007 when Germany’s Daimler AG began the process of selling off Chrysler that culminated in a deal later that year to sell the automaker to Cerberus.

GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner also said last year that he saw some potential for Cerberus to combine GMAC with Chrysler Financial, the finance company affiliated with the No. 3 automaker.

Analysts have questioned Chrysler’s ability to survive as a stand-alone automaker, given its reliance on sales to North America for some 90 percent of its revenue.

But a combination with GM would match two companies with overlapping weaknesses, analysts said when merger talks first emerged.

For one thing, both GM and Chrysler have been hurt by their reliance on sales of trucks and SUVs. For another, both have been struggling to cut union-represented production jobs in reaction to weaker sales.

Chrysler has also had discussions about a tie-up with India’s Tata Motors and Italy’s Fiat in recent months.

GM shares fell to near a 60-year low this week on fears the global financial crisis could derail its turnaround plans.

GM and Ford both ruled out on Friday seeking bankruptcy protection.

NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster, first reported that Ford, which has 33.4 percent of Mazda, plans to sell about most of its stake and has already approached Japanese companies on the sale.

GM shares fell as low as $4 early on Friday, the lowest price for the stock since 1949, but recovered and ended up 13 cents, or 2.7 percent higher, at $4.89 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said on Thursday that both GM and Ford had adequate liquidity for 2008, but deteriorating industry fundamentals would make liquidity a serious challenge in 2009.

Also on Thursday, industry forecaster J.D. Power and Associates said the global auto markets could be in danger of an “outright collapse” in 2009 as a slowdown that began in North America spills over to other markets.

U.S. auto sales have fallen for three consecutive years to hit 15-year lows in recent months.

Many analysts now expect further declines in 2009 and some slowing in other regions around the world, adding pressure on GM and other U.S. automakers that have been restructuring.

GM, which posted a second-quarter net loss of $15.5 billion, announced plans in July to improve its liquidity by about $15 billion by the end of 2009, about two-thirds through cost cuts and the rest through asset sales and new borrowing.

Ford, which posted a $2.7 billion net loss in the second quarter, went to capital markets to raise more than $23 billion in late 2006. Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally said earlier on Friday that the company was watching its cash flow carefully.

By Kevin Krolicki and Jui Chakravorty Das

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Former CEO Anthony Cuti, 63, is accused of providing false information during negotiations over the purchase of Duane Reade, previously a publicly held company, by private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners in 2004.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas in Manhattan federal court released Cuti, who surrendered to authorities on Friday morning, on a $3 million personal recognizance bond.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, from December 2000 through June 2005, Cuti and former Chief Financial Officer William Tennant “engaged in a scheme to misrepresent Duane Reade’s financial performance” to investors and fraudulently made millions of dollars.

The SEC filed separate civil charges accusing the pair of multimillion-dollar accounting schemes when they were in charge of Duane Reade, the biggest chain of drug stores in the New York City area.

Cuti’s attorney in the civil case, Jeffrey Sklaroff, said in a statement that the transactions were disputed and had no effect on stockholders, bondholders, the company or Oak Hill.

Tennant will be arraigned at a later date, prosecutors said. His attorney was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Brian Moss) (nyc.buro@reuters.com; +1 646 223 6280))

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“In the emerging markets where people have began to eat beef, such as China, this trend is very stable,” said the president of local meatpacker Mercosul, Augusto Marques da Cruz Filho, at a private equity event on Brazil’s agricultural sector.

Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter.

“If people begin to cut back due to economic downturn, it will be the new car, TV or refrigerator that is put off, not the weekly meat ration,” he said.

Mercosur sold a managing stake of its company to private equity firm AIG Capital’s local unit FIP AIG. AIG’s management support has managed to turn the company around from a loss generating company up through most of 2007 to generate increasing profits over the past three quarters.

“The recent commodities market correction and Argentina’s political situation is improving acquisition opportunities,” said Harald Brunckhorst, the director of operations at Calyx Agro, Louis Dreyfus’s private equity fund that focuses on agricultural land in Brazil, Argentina and the Southern Cone.

Brazil’s sugar cane, soybean and meat packing industries are heavily leveraged industries that will likely see renewed pressure to consolidate in the coming year due to the tightening credit situation around the world.

The fund manages or controls nearly 60,000 hectares of productive land in Brazil that produces soy, corn and cotton. It raised $177.5 million initially, of which it has committed $120.7 million. Brunckhorst said the company is planning to raise capital again some time in the near future when the market conditions are favorable.

“Land is a very attractive asset that few institutional investors have access to,” he said, adding that the fund may go public in a few years with a stock offering.

In what analysts are concerned may be the resurgence of nationalism, the Brazilian government is considering a proposal for law that would restrict foreign capital-backed funds from buying productive farm land in Brazil.

When asked about the threat of the law to the fund’s activities, Brunckhorst said, “We manage over a dozen companies in Brazil. We have invested heavily to improve the value and production on thousands of hectares of land: I have no doubt that this law will not be a problem for us.”

He added that the law would most likely target companies or investors simply coming to Brazil to buy land on a speculative basis, to drive up property rates and turn a quick profit without actually improving the land.

“Speculators in land may have problems with such a law, especially given the climate as a result of the U.S. real estate market,” Brunckhorst said.

(Reporting by Reese Ewing; editing by Jim Marshall)

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The bids will come from private equity funds Bain Capital, Italy’s Clessidra and Britain’s Bridgepoint Capital Ltd., said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The offers will be delivered to sale advisers Banca Leonardo and Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). Those involved in the sale process declined to comment.

Cerved supplies corporate and business information, collecting data from Italian chanbers of commerce. It had earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of 69.8 million euros ($95.79 million) in 2007.

Cerved is 85 percent owned by Centrale dei Bilanci with the rest held by France’s Coface.

Centrale dei Bilanci is owned by UniCredit (CRDI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) with 22.6 percent, Intesa SanPaolo (ISP.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) with 24.5 percent and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) with 12.6 percent. The Bank of Italy has a stake of 8.9 percent.

Bain owns Italian business data banks Teamsystem and Lince.

(Reporting by Massimo Gaia; Editing by David Cowell)

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