Finsbury
Finsbury is a major London-based financial PR and lobbying company.
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
People
- Roland Rudd, Finsbury founder and friend of Peter Mandelson. He 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 spent time during the 2001 election campaign to help Mandelson 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.
(Finsbury was 75 percent 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).
Others at Finsbury include:[2]
- Faeth Birch | Morgan Bone | Rory Chisholm | Rollo Head | James Leviton | | Edward Orlebar |
(PR contacts for Kazakhmys: Robin Walker | Andrew Mitchell | Zoe Watt)
New Labour links
- Finsbury paid more than £5,000 to the Labour Party for 'tickets for dinners' in 1999-2000.
- The firm previously hired the Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer.
- In 2001 Finsbury¹s party guests 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 then won the 2002 contract to advise then Transport Secretary Stephen "Liar" Byers over the Railtrack collapse.
- In 2006 Tony Blair's eldest son Euan did work experience at Finsbury.
Private Eye commented: "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..."[3]
Clients
Finsbury claims to count more than 20 FTSE 100 and Eurofirst 300 companies as clients.[4]
- Shell. 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]
- BNFL. The company is also retained by British Nuclear Fuels Limited. (BNFL)[6].
Lobbying clients
Lobbying clients in 2009, according to the Finsbury website include:[7]
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:[8]
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
Resources
- 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
References
- ↑ Finsbury website
- ↑ Finsbury Contact Us
- ↑ Blair the Younger does work experience with City spin doctors Private Eye, February 6, 2006, Issue 1150
- ↑ WPP webiste, Finsbury, accessed Feb 2009
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Corporate Watch
- ↑ Finsbury website, accessed February 2009
- ↑ Finsbury website, accessed February 2009
