Events organiser UBM appoints finance boss Gray CEO of PR Newswire

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July 20 (Reuters) - UBM Plc (LSE: UBM.L - news) said finance head Robert Gray would become chief executive of PR Newswire, its service used by companies to publish announcements for clients.

Gray, who joined the British events and communications company's board in 2009, will step down as CFO and director to assume the lead role at PR Newswire on Aug. 1, UBM said.

Gray succeeds Ninan Chacko, who will leave PR Newswire to pursue other opportunities after six years at the helm.

TomTom NV (Other OTC: TMOAF - news) 's CFO, Marina Wyatt, recently left the Dutch navigation company to join UBM in September as its head of finance.

UBM had said at the time that Gray wanted to relocate to the United States.

New York-based PR Newswire distributes corporate announcements via news agencies such as Thomson Reuters Corp and other digital platforms. For years it has been seen by analysts as non-core to UBM's main franchise of organising trade events such as the world's largest fashion convention.

Reuters reported in April that UBM was exploring a sale of the service, in a deal that could value the distributor of press releases at more than $700 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

PR Newswire reported revenue of 195.8 million pounds in 2014, accounting for 26 percent of UBM's total.

Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) in UBM, the world's second-largest events organiser, were marginally up at 523 pence at 0720 GMT on the London Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)