THE DAILY BRIEFING
■ PRU SALE Financial services giant Prudential has sold its network of US broker-dealers for an initial £252.4m, which could increase to as much as £357.9m, and will complete early next year.
■ CLEANING CONTRACT British facilities company ABM UK has won a five-year contract to clean Transport for London’s underground stations and trains, bus depots, office buildings and the London Transport Museum.
■ ROBOT RISE Factory workers and drivers are most likely to be the first casualties of a robots jobs revo
lution, according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, whose spokesman, Dr Antonio Espingardeiro, yesterday said more than 1.4m robots would be working in global factories by 2019.
■ BURLINGTON RETIRES Bruce Burlington will retire as a non-executive director on pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca this month.
The 69-year-old American joined the board in 2010 and is a member of its audit, nomination, and governance committees as well as chairman of its science committee. ■ METALCRAFT DEAL Engineering equipment maker Avingtrans announced that its subsidiary, Metalcraft, has secured a £3.6m contract with diesel and alternative fuel engine maker Cummins.
■ PROFITS RISE Georgia-focused investment platform BGEO group’s profits are up 13.1pc over the latest quarter to £41m, boosted by the growing Georgian economy.
■ GREKA WIN AIM-listed oil and gas driller Greka Drilling has won two contracts with PetroChina, meaning it now has three coalbed methane contracts with the Chinese state-owned company. ■ WINDFARM BACKING Businesses backing the Neart na Gao
ithe wind farm to be built off the coast of Fife, Scotland, are calling on the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to drop its opposition to the project.
■ MINORITY DEFICIT Nearly six in ten FTSE 100 boards have no ethnic
minority members, according to consultant Green Park.
It also found there had been an 18pc fall in the number of minority chairmen, chief executives and chief financial officers. However, the firm said that 5pc of top managers just below board level were from minorities – the highest level in four years.