update from bloomberg Brambles to Sell Cleanaway to Focus on...

update from bloomberg Brambles to Sell Cleanaway to Focus on CHEP, Recall
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) --

Brambles Industries Ltd., the world's biggest supplier of pallets used to move and store goods, plans to sell its Cleanaway and Industrial Services businesses to focus on its CHEP pallets and Recall document storage units.

Brambles plans to complete the sales within a year and will have about A$2.8 billion ($2.1 billion) cash to spend on a share buyback, the Sydney-based company said in a statement today. It will stop trading as a dual-listed company on the London Stock Exchange, and move its primary listing to Australia.

Chief Executive David Turner has been selling less- profitable businesses to focus on the higher returns of CHEP, the pallet unit which is his biggest division, and faster-growing businesses such as Recall, which stores and manages documents.

Brambles last month sold its Cleanaway unit in Germany for A$893 million. The global waste group was the company's second- biggest and least-profitable division last year. It was also the only business to record a decline in profit before interest, tax, goodwill amortization and one-time charges, dropping 8.6 percent to A$191 million.

The Industrial Services unit is its second-least profitable.

Brambles shares have climbed 33 percent this year, more than double the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index's 14 percent gain. Of the 11 analysts tracked by Bloomberg, 10 rate the shares ``buy'' and one rates the stock ``hold.''