Finsbury
Finsbury is a London-based PR company specializing in investor relations. It describes itself as providing "an integrated service advising on all areas of communication with the global financial community including financial media, political & regulatory affairs and investor relations." [1]
Finsbury's work on EU political & regulatory issues is done via Finsbury International Policy & Regulatory Advisors
Finsbury was founded in London in October 1994 and in 2001 was taken over to become part of the WPP group.
Contents
New Labour links
They paid more than £5,000 to the Labour Party for 'tickets for dinners' in 1999-2000. In 2006 Tony Blair's eldest son Euan did work experience at Finsbury. Private Eye reported:
- Roland Rudd, the Finsbury founder and friend of Peter Mandelson, has been cosying up to "new" Labour for many years. In 2001 Finsbury¹s party guests also included the present Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and Education Ministers (and peer) Andrew Adonis, as well as the then Labour party boss, also since ennobled, Lord Triesman.
- Finsbury previously hired the former private secretary of the Dear Leader¹s close pal, the Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer. Such contacts and support for Labour events at conference time perhaps helped merit the 2002 contract to advise then Transport Secretary Stephen "Liar" Byers over the Railtrack collapse.
- So look out for the pay-off... most likely to come for such a selfless act as explaining to Blair the Younger the dark arts of being paid to lie...[2]
Finsbury was 75% owned by Roland Rudd, who made £41 million by selling the company to WPP in May 2001. Another two Directors, Rupert Younger and James Murgatroyd, will share another £14 million between them from the sale.
Roland Rudd is the son of a Stockbroker. He was President of the Union at Oxford University and a former journalist with the Independent, Sunday Correspondent and the Financial Times. He is a friend of Peter Mandelson, spending time during the 2001 election campaign to help him at his Hartlepool constituency. Rupert Younger is the nephew of Viscount George Younger (Chairman of the Bank of Scotland). James Murgatroyd is a former banker with Dean Witter.
Staff
Described as 'Partners' on the Finsbury website[3]
- Faeth Birch | Morgan Bone | Rory Chisholm | Rollo Head | James Leviton | James Murgatroyd | Edward Orlebar | Roland Rudd | Rupert Younger
PR contracts for Kazakhmys: Robin Walker | Andrew Mitchell | Zoe Watt
Clients
Finsbury claims to count more than 20 FTSE 100's and Eurofirst 300's as clients.[4] PR Week reports that for several years Shell had - and continued to - use the London-based Finsbury to handle financial PR for the company and was also advising on managing the crisis on the overstated reserves. [5] The company is also retained by British Nuclear Fuels Limited. (BNFL) [2].
Lobbying clients
Lobbying clients, according to the Finsbury website in February 2009 include:[6]
BAA | Bradford & Bingley | British Land Company | Cerus Corporation | CH2M HILL | Daily Mail and General Trust Equitable Life | Experian | Gilead | MOL Group | Moto | Pfizer | Reed Elsevier | Roadchef | Taylor Wimpey | Travelport | Welcome Break | Yell Group
Bluechip & International / Euro 300 / FTSE 100 / FTSE 250
Clients, according to the Finsbury website, include:[7]
Aviva | BNFL | Boots plc | Cable and Wireless | British Sky Broadcasting plc | Cable & Wireless | Centrica plc | CRH plc | Enel SpA | Eni SpA | EoN | Friends Provident | GUS | International Power | Sainsbury | KKR | Lloyds TSB | Man Group | Reed Elsevier | Rio Tinto | Royal & SunAlliance | Royal Dutch Shell | Standard Chartered | Terna SpA | Tomkins | Vodafone | WPP | Yell PLC | Morgan Crucible | Kesa Electricals | Pendragon | Filtrona plc | Great Portland Estates | SIG | Trinity Mirror | Vedanta Resources | London Stock Exchange | Mitchells & Butlers | Pennon Group | Autostrada SpA | Banca Intesa Spa | BPB plc | Edison SpA | Northern Rock | GCap Media PLC | Henderson Group plc | Inmarsat | John Laing | Jardine Lloyd Thompson | Kazakhmys | Northumbrian Water Group | Persimmon | Pilkington | Virgin Mobile Holdings (UK) | Barclays Capital | Basic Element | Beazley Group plc | BNFL | C&C Group | Coral Eurobet | Electra Partners Europe | Equitable Life | Europa Capital | General Electric Co | Genesis Investment Managers | GLG Partners | Huveaux PLC | KKR | Landsbanki | Ofgem | Paypoint plc | Permira | Premiere | RDF Media Company plc | Roland Berger | RTL Group | Senior plc | Travelodge
Selected Transactions
Boots/Alliance Unichem | Boots/BHI | BPB/St Gobain | British Land/Pillar | Bunzl/Filtrona | C&W/Energis | Capital Radio/GWR Group | Cendant Demerger | Fortune Brands/Pernod Ricard/Allied Domecq | Inmarsat IPO | Kazakhmys IPO | LSE Defence | Manchester United/Glazier | Permira/KKR/SBS | Pilkington/NSG | Somerfield/Violet | Telenet IPO | Terna | VNU/IMS | Vodafone/Bharti Tele-Venture | Vodafone Sverige
References
- ↑ Finsbury website
- ↑ Blair the Younger does work experience with City spin doctors Private Eye, February 6, 2006, Issue 1150
- ↑ Finsbury Contact Us
- ↑ WPP webiste, Finsbury, accessed Feb 2009
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Finsbury website, accessed February 2009
- ↑ Finsbury website, accessed February 2009
Notes
- Mark Townsend and Antony Barnett PR firm hired to sell top-up fees Labour rebels outraged at 'abuse' of taxpayers' money as university vice-chancellors acquire services of Mandelson's millionaire friend, Sunday January 18, 2004, The Observer
- Antony Barnett and Jamie Doward The PR tycoon, a private dinner and PM's meeting with Euro lobby group Businessmen lobbying for unlimited immigration from Romania and Bulgaria met the Prime Minister at an exclusive London home, Sunday September 17, 2006, The Observer
