Fiji: New Zealand-based Fletcher Building has agreed to sell its 50% stake in construction firm Higgins Holdings Fiji to Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) and Fijian Holdings for US$12.3m. BusinessDesk News has reported that the parties expect to complete the deal by early July 2024. The transaction includes a non-cash impairment of US$9.2m on the business.

Fletcher Building’s acting CEO Nick Traber said "We believe the partnership positions the business well to continue to play an important role in Fiji, focused on infrastructure development.”

FNPF CEO Viliame Vodonaivalu said “This co-investment not only diversifies our investment portfolio, but also creates mutual benefits for the fund in complementing our unlisted property portfolio and development pipeline. We are proud to collaborate with Fletcher, a longstanding leader in Fiji’s construction sector since 1971, renowned for their quality and dependable services. With a workforce of 700 Fijians, Fletcher stands as the largest construction company in Fiji, highlighting their corporate strength and reliability in the industry.”

UK: Ramboll has established its Sustainability Leadership Group to spearhead the decarbonisation strategy for UK construction. The team aims to be ‘powerhouse’ of cross-disciplinary expertise to support clients at every stage of their sustainability journey, through setting and achieving ambitious goals for their construction projects. Lora Brill will serve as the group’s Head of Sustainability for Buildings, while Austen Bates and Brogan MacDonald will serve as Sustainability Leads for Building Services and Building Structures, respectively, alongside Jac Yarwood as Head of Sustainable Solutions.

Lora Brill said, "I’m excited to put in place this exceptionally talented team that brings structural engineering, mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering and sustainability consultancy together to lead Ramboll’s incredible breadth and depth of technical expertise on sustainability in building design and engineering. The team will continue to drive more engagements in key industry initiatives like ConcreteZero and SteelZero, and lead our own such as CO2mpare, which transparently shares building projects carbon data. We are committed to being the Partner for Sustainable Change and this leadership team is just one more step in ensuring that we challenge current thinking and champion innovative approaches to sustainability."

ConcreteZero is an emissions measuring and reporting association for concrete jointly founded by Ramboll in mid-2022.

Japan: Sumitomo Mitsui Construction has successfully switched its Notogawa precast concrete products plant to 100% renewably-powered production. Nikkei News has reported that the company has switched the plant’s boilers to green hydrogen. These were previously the source of 60% of the plant’s emissions. The plant has also switched to using electricity entirely from renewable sources.

Sumitomo Mitsui Construction says it is working to make each of its precast plants carbon neutral.

Russia: BK-BETON recorded a net profit of US$19,200 in 2023, against a narrow loss in 2022. The company’s cost of sales rose by 7% to US$205,000. BK-BETON said that the rise reflected its operational growth.