THE DAILY BRIEFING

■ CONFIDENCE BLOW Accountant KPMG has suffered a fresh setback in South Africa after finance firm Old Mutual hired rival Deloitte to work alongside it.

■ DANE QUITS The compliance chief at Danish lender Danske Bank has quit amid a money laundering scandal. Andres Jorgensen said his decision was not linked to a probe into £6.3bn of suspicious transactions at Danske’s Estonian branch.

■ CHINA VENTURE Hedge fund Marshall Wace has become the largest player in the industry to set up a company in mainland China. It plans to use the subsidiary to research Chinese stocks.

■ LOAN DEMANDS Lenders saw a jump in demand from small businesses in the three months to June, according to a Bank of England survey, which may suggest investment is picking up. ■ COPPER SALE Miner Rio Tinto is selling its 40pc stake in the world’s second biggest copper mine, Grasberg in Indonesia, to state mining company Inalum, for £2.6bn.

■ CLEANING UP Support services group Interserve has been hired by the NHS to manage catering, cleaning, and other maintenance services to the 450-bed King George Hospital in north-east London in a fiveyear £35m deal. ■ RIG PURCHASE Oil and gas services firm Ades International is buying 31 drilling rigs from Weatherford International for £217m.

■ PARKING DEAL Outsourcing firm Capita is selling its parking management business Parkingeye to Australian bank Macquarie and funds advised by MML Capital Partners, for £235m. ■ CLAY CRAZE Pottery maker Portmeirion clocked up an 11pc increase in sales for the six months to June 30 compared with last year. ■ PIN INTEREST Bowling firm Ten Entertainment coped well in the hot spell as sales grew 3.1pc in the 26 weeks to July 1. ■ FLYING HIGH Bosses at Manchester Airport Group cheered its busiest ever June with 6m passengers, 6.4pc higher than a year earlier.

■ SOFTWARE GRAB The firm banned by Donald Trump from merging with US chip maker Qualcomm, Broadcom, is buying software firm CA Technologies for £14.3bn.

■ TECH LEAP Top AI boss at Google, John Giannandrea, has been poached by Apple.