RPT-Market Chatter-Corporate finance press digest

Feb 11 (Reuters) - The following corporate finance-related stories were reported by media on Monday:

* Barclays will target at least 2 billion pounds ($3.17 billion) in savings from its 20 billion pounds annual cost base when it announces a strategic overhaul on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported, adding that the overhaul includes cutting about 2,000 investment bank jobs and shuttering some operations in parts of Europe.

* The U.S. Treasury, under pressure to quickly wind down its crisis-era bailouts, believes it cannot rush the sale of auto lender Ally Financial because the company's mortgage lending unit is in a messy bankruptcy, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

* US Airways Group Inc and AMR Corp are nearing an $11 billion merger that would create the world's largest airline and could announce a deal within a week, after resolving key differences on valuation and management structure, people familiar with the matter said.

* Three of Dell Inc's largest investors joined Southeastern Asset Management on Friday in objecting to a $24.4 billion buyout of the No. 3 PC maker led by Chief Executive Michael Dell, sources said, as opposition grows to the largest buyout since the start of the financial crisis.

* Montagu Private Equity has sold the ghd hair styling brand to Lion Capital, with two sources close to the deal putting the purchase price at nearly 300 million pounds.

* Credit Suisse's top investment banker for Qatar has resigned, three banking sources said, in a move that comes as the Swiss bank tries to bolster operations in the Gulf state, home to its second-largest shareholder.

* CIT Group Inc had preliminary talks over the past year and a half to sell itself to banks, including Toronto-Dominion Bank and Wells Fargo & Co, but nothing came of the conversations, according to three people familiar with the speciality finance company.

* Bidders competing for ThyssenKrupp AG's loss-making U.S. and Brazilian steel mills are teaming up in an effort to make the investment more digestible, according to people familiar with the transaction.

* Royal Bank of Scotland will pay Chief Executive Stephen Hester a 780,000 pounds bonus deferred from three years ago while other executives see pay clawed back in the wake of the Libor rate rigging scandal, the Sunday Times newspaper said.