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July 20 (Reuters) - UBM Plc said finance head RobertGray would become chief executive of PR Newswire, its serviceused by companies to publish announcements for clients.
Gray, who joined the British events and communicationscompany's board in 2009, will step down as CFO and director toassume the lead role at PR Newswire on Aug. 1, UBM said.
Gray succeeds Ninan Chacko, who will leave PR Newswire topursue other opportunities after six years at the helm.
TomTom NV's CFO, Marina Wyatt, recently left theDutch navigation company to join UBM in September as its head offinance.
UBM had said at the time that Gray wanted to relocate to theUnited States.
New York-based PR Newswire distributes corporateannouncements via news agencies such as Thomson Reuters Corp and other digital platforms. For years it has been seenby analysts as non-core to UBM's main franchise of organisingtrade events such as the world's largest fashion convention.
Reuters reported in April that UBM was exploring a sale ofthe service, in a deal that could value the distributor of pressreleases at more than $700 million, according to people familiarwith the matter.
PR Newswire reported revenue of 195.8 million pounds in2014, accounting for 26 percent of UBM's total.
Shares in UBM, the world's second-largest events organiser,were marginally up at 523 pence at 0720 GMT on the London StockExchange. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing byAnupama Dwivedi)
