Morning news wrap: BP, Rio Tinto, Bunzl, Royal Bank of Scotland, Serco Group

In the FTSE 100, business services company Serco Group (LON:SRP) has said that its consortium has signed a contract with the Ministry of Justice to provide and operate a new prison at Belmarsh West, London. The contract has a value to Serco of approximately £415m, and will run for 26.5 years.
Miner Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) has finished the divestment of its Alcan Packaging business with the completion of sales of its two outstanding assets. Medical Flexibles has been acquired by Amcor for US$66 million and Alcan Beauty Packaging has been acquired by Sun European Partners LLP for an undisclosed sum.
Specialist distribution group Bunzl (LON:BNZL) has acquired Etablissements Glorieux SA, which trades as Global Net, from Olivier and Luc Glorieux.

Oil and gas supermajor BP (LON:BP) said that the first floating riser system will be available to begin first operations towards the end of the week. Meanwhile, the clean up costs have surpassed US$3.1 billion.

Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) has announced that it is selling a portfolio of 40 private equity investments in its Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance (BOSIF) business to a new joint venture called Cavendish Square Partners LP.  The new joint venture will be majority owned (approximately 70%) by Coller Capital, a global leader in private equity secondary transactions, with Lloyds Banking Group owning a stake of approximately 30%.
On AIM, Specialty minerals exploration and development company Thor Mining (LON:THR) has said that the remaining assay results from the initial calcrete sampling across the new Dundas gold project in Western Australia have revealed additional anomalies with new drilling targets, the greatest concentration of high gold values encountered to date and a further substantial increase in that part of the project area offering potential drill targets.
Avocet Mining (LON:AVM) has executed a legally binding definitive agreement to sell its 100% interest in the Hounde group of licenses to Avion Gold Corporation (TSX:AVR).
UK based electrical components producer and supplier Cinpart (LON:CINP) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with three organisations based in Ohio, USA to establish an assembly facility in the USA as well as the promotion of Active Energy's voltage optimisation products.
Copper and gold miner EMED Mining (LON:EMED) has said that permitting risks across its European projects have been reduced after the European Commission rejected a proposed ban on the use of cyanide in mining activities.

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