Finsbury

This article is part of the Nuclear Spin project of Spinwatch.

Finsbury is a leading, 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."

Company structure and history

Finsbury was founded in London in October 1994 and in 2001 was taken over to become part of the WPP group. Finsbury was 75 percent owned by Roland Rudd, who made £41 million by selling the company. Another two Directors, Rupert Younger and James Murgatroyd shared another £14 million between them from the sale. Finsbury's work on EU political & regulatory issues is done via Finsbury International Policy & Regulatory Advisors.

People

• Roland Rudd, Finsbury founder. Along with Alan Parker of Brunswick, Rudd has"dominated financial PR in London in the past decade or so." Both men also counted both Gordon Brown and David Cameron as wedding guests. Rudd is very well connected with both leading politicians and CEOs (see below). He began as policy coordinator for Liberal Democrat Lord David Owen, before becoming a financial journalist.

• Rupert Younger, nephew of Viscount George Younger (former chairman of the Bank of Scotland). Ex-Brunswick. Now a consultant to Finsbury.
• James Murgatroyd a former banker with Dean Witter
• Rory Chisholm, head of Finsbury's political & regulatory practice and a director of FIPRA (Finsbury International Policy & Regulatory Advisors. Formerly of lobbying firm GJW (to 2000).
• Others at Finsbury include:
  Faeth Birch | Rollo Head | James Leviton | | Edward Orlebar | Andrew Merrill | Andrew Mitchel | (PR contacts for Kazakhmys: Robin Walker | Andrew Mitchell | Zoe Watt)

Reform Europe "to meet business needs"

Rudd is founding Chairman of campaigning group, Business for New Europe (BNE), which wants Britain to play a leading role inside the EU - reforming it to meet business interests and needs, and expansion to include Turkey. Sir Nigel Rudd (no relation), Chair of BAA from August 2007, and Roger Carr, who went on to chair Centrica - two of Finsbury's most productive supporters - are on BNE's advisory board. Martin Sorrell, head of owners WPP also sits on the BNE advisory group. "Rudd and Sorrell like to think they're plugged in, they exchange gossip", it is reported. On BNE Rudd says: "I enjoy it enormously because it enables me to engage with Ed [Balls], with George Osborne on the Tory side and Chris Huhne and Nick Clegg from the Lib Dems."

Political links

Finsbury has close ties to New Labour through its founder Roland Rudd. For example, Rudd is friends with Peter Mandelson and Ed Balls, a close confident of Gordon Brown. Rudd says: "I've a very good relationship with Ed (Balls) - he's been a friend from FT days". He also knows David Cameron, who was a client when Cameron was at Carlton: "He came to dinner with our clients recently (2007). I was pleased - it showed he's not tribal," says Rudd. It's reported that Rudd has "finely honed social and political connections":

Dinners at his grand house in Kensington are relaxed, informal occasions. Sophie [his wife], who designs women's eveningwear, will be there. The guests will include a client or two, heads of large companies, a top banker, a senior journalist and a Cabinet minister and their other halves. Even Tony Blair has supped at his table. Rudd was one of four people who met at the house of Charles Dunstone, the Carphone Warehouse magnate, to plot the ex-PM's next move in the run-up to Blair's departure."

Rudd also held a garden party on 28 June 2007 to raise funds for the NSPCC. Present were retailer Sir Philip Green, owner of Arcadia (Topshop, Burton and others), Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail and Paul Myners, former chairman of Marks & Spencer who was appointed Financial Services Secretary (a position sometimes referred to as City Minister) in HM Treasury by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in October 2008. Baron Myners was given a peerage at the same time.

Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson was also a guest of Rudd's. He flew home from the 2009 World Economic Fourm in Davos in February on Rudd's private jet. In addition:

• 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..."

Lobbying

Finsbury has regular discussions with government. In response to Parliamentary questions in 2008-09, it is known that Rudd, often through the BNE, organised 4 breakfast meetings, two dinners, and a number of conferences with senior Ministers at the Department for Business in 2008:

• John Hutton, when he was Secretary of State for Business, met with BNE members (Sept 2007); attended a BNE breakfast event (Dec 2007); talked on the phone with Rudd (Jan 2008); spoke at the BERR/FCO ‘Business Priorities for a Global Europe’ Conference was organised in co-operation with BNE, which Rudd chaired (Jane 2008); attended a dinner with BNE members (June 2008); met with Rudd (Oct 2008);
• Lord Peter Mandelson, Hutton's predecessor as Secretary of State for Business (Oct 2008-), attended two breakfast meetings with Roland Rudd and several BNE company members to discuss EU economic reform issues (both Dec 2008).
• Shriti Vadera, another Business minister (Nov 2008 -) formerly with investment bank UBS Warburg, also attended a breakfast meeting with BNE and Rudd (Oct 2008); a dinner with Rudd and "other guests" (March 2008); spoke at a BNE Enlargement Seminar (May 2008); and attended the Global Europe Business Summit alongside Rudd (Dec 2008). Also attending were president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, and the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso.

Finsbury has also made representations to a number of other Ministers and officials in other departments:

• Treasury: It arranged a dinner on 19 April 2007, at which John Kingman, the former Second Permanent Secretary at the Treasury was present. At the time Kingman was second in command at the Treasury and managing director of finance. He is now chief executive of UK Financial Investments (UKFI), the body charged with managing the Government's investments in Britain's banks.
• Transport: The Minister of State for Transport met with a representative of Finsbury on 12 and 16 December 2007.

Clients

Finsbury claims to count more than 20 FTSE 100 and Eurofirst 300 companies as clients.

Wealthy individuals

• Rudd is reported to represent Oleg Deripaska, the 40-year-old Russian oligarch and Russia's richest man - Deripaska is a friend of Rudd's mate Peter Mandelson - and Nat Rothschild. When, in October 2008, a row erupted between Mandelson and George Osborne (Conservative shadow chancellor) about conversations had on Oleg Deripaska's boat, Rothschild was one of a number of Rudd's clients who came out in support of Mandelson

• Finsbury and Rudd were also hired by Sir Phillip Green, owner of British retail group Arcadia. Green was trying to buy Marks & Spencer. Robert Peston in his 2008 book Who Runs Britain? explains why PR support was necessary:

"This was one of those takeover struggles where the weapons were money and innuendo... The tone and coverage in the press and on television mattered even more than it usually does in this kind of corporate contest."

Peston also notes than Stuart Rose at Marks & Spencer ditched its usual PR firm, Brunswick in favour of an old friend Andrew Grant of Tulchan Communications. Philip Green, he reports, also holds Brunswick responsible for the negative publicity he faced when Green's wife purchased shares in Marks and Spencer at a previous time when Green tried to buy the company.

Financial sector

Finsbury's big name clients in the financial sector include Lloyds TSB (PR only; Lloyd's lobbying is done by Citigate Dewe Rogerson), private equity giant, KKR (PR and lobbying) and Bradford and Bingley.

Energy sector

• 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.
• BNFL. The company is also retained by British Nuclear Fuels Limited. (BNFL).
• E.ON

Lobbying clients

Lobbying clients in 2009, according to the Finsbury website include:

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

Mining and Metals

• Finsbury represented Rio Tinto during its takeover bid for Chinalco, Chinese aluminium firm.
• Vedanta Resources plc
• Arcelor

Bluechip & International / Euro 300 / FTSE 100 / FTSE 250

Clients, according to the Finsbury website, include:
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

Contact

Tenter House
45 Moorfields
London EC2Y 9AE
http://www.finsbury.com

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