THE DAILY BRIEFING
AON DEAL Insurance broker Aon is to sell its benefits administration platform to private equity firm Blackstone Group for £3.4bn. The broker could get up to £400m more based on future performance.
RIO SIGNING Shell’s outgoing finance director Simon Henry, 55, is to join the board of mining giant Rio Tinto. He quit his £3.2m-per-year post in December after driving through the oil giant’s £41bn takeover of BG Group.
SALES BOOST A performance improvement plan has boosted sales for Electrocomponents. The consumer parts seller saw sales grow 6pc in the four months to January 31.
METAL ROLE Acting head Matt Chamberlain is the frontrunner to take the reins at the London Metal Exchange. He is believed to be interested in the job, having stepped in temporarily following the abrupt departure of Garry Jones last month.
DEFIANT RBS Royal Bank of Scotland has rejected calls to beef up a £400m scheme to reimburse customers who say they were mistreated by the bank’s business restructuring division. Andrew Tyrie MP, who chairs parliament’s Treasury Select Committee, asked if the amount was too low, as a customer action group looking to sue the bank already has claims worth £2bn.
BUPA BACKED The competition watchdog has cleared Bupa’s £835m acquisition of Oasis Dental Care. WIGLEY ROLE City grandee Bob Wigley has been appointed as the banking industry’s top lobbyist. In March, he will chair a group being formed by a merger of six powerful bodies including the British Bankers’ Association and the UK Cards Association.
PRU RETREAT Prudential is pulling out of the annuity market after pension reforms caused a collapse in business. The savings giant will stop offering the products by the end of 2017.
SFO PROBE The Serious Fraud Office is probing Swiss engineering giant ABB’s work in the UK, looking at the firm’s UK subsidiaries and their employees and agents for suspected offences of bribery and corruption.
OIL VOW Independent oil and gas firm Faroe Petroleum expects to produce 40-50,000 barrels of oil a day by 2022 as it enters a major growth phase.
NUKE STRIKE The Trident nuclear weapons programme could be delayed unless a pensions row is settled, union Unite has warned as 600 workers at the Atomic Weapons Establishment get set to strike for two days this month.