Finsbury Limited
Who we are
Finsbury is one of the leading financial,
regulatory and political communications
agencies in the world.
With offices in London, New York, Brussels and Dubai, Finsbury provides strategic communications advice to international clients on their interaction with the media, financial markets, governments and key stakeholders.
Our services
Financial communications
- Strategic communications advice
- International M&A transactions
- IPO advice and management
- Internal and market communications
- Corporate restructuring
- Crisis management
- Reputation management
Political and regulatory
- Strategic public affairs advice
- UK and EU M&A and competition policy advice
- UK and EU political contact programmes
- Select Committee training
- Integrated political and media campaigns
Investor relations
- Strategic advice on corporate positioning, governance and fundraising
- Investor audits
- Peer group analysis
- Financial calendar management
Why Finsbury
Finsbury's professionalism and innovative approach to financial and political communications has ensured it has led the industry since its formation in 1994.
Finsbury is a boardroom adviser to the world's leading companies and deal makers on day-to-day communications and has advised on some of the most high profile transactions of recent times.
Along with our experience, Finsbury's financial literacy, industry leading client to principal ratio and strong relationships with key opinion formers in the city, financial media and decision makers in government enable us to provide an unrivalled service to our clients.
- No.1 for clients more than 25 FTSE 100's and Eurofirst 300's
- No.1 UK M&A adviser by deal value for 2007 (Mergermarket)
- No.1 for client retention in the industry
- The most influential PR adviser' as voted by City Editors (The Independent & CityAM)
- Winner of PR Week City Award 2007 and Best M&A Campaign 2005
- Winner of PAN Public sector Public Affairs Campaign of the year 2008 for Campaign for Crossrail
Our clients
Aviva
Banca Intesa
65bn Merger of Banca Intesa and San Paolo IMI
Basic Element
BNLF
$5.4bn Sale of Westinghouse to Toshiba
British Land
£811m Acquisition of Pillar Property
Cable & Wireless
£594m Acquisition of Energis
Cadbury
£550m Sale of Schweppes Australia
Carlesberg
£10.2bn Acquisition of Scottish & Newcastle with Heineken
Centrica
£2.2bn Rights issue 760m Joint acquisition with Gaz de France of Spe SA
Compass
£1.8bn Sale of Select Service Partner
CRH
£147m Acquisition of 26% stake in Yatai Cement $1.3bn Acquisition of Ashland Paving & Construction
DMGT
E-on
69bn Cash offer for Endesa
Enel
3.4bn IPO of Terna on the Italian Stock Exchange
Eni
680m Sale of Snamprogetti to Saipem
Experian
Ferrexpo
Sale of 25% stake to RGPI/NWR £848m IPO on the London Stock Exchange
Friends Provident
Successful defence against JC Flowers takeover proposal
GLG Partners
$3.4bn Listing on the American Stock Exchange
GUS
£10.6bn Demerger of GUS into Experian & Home Retail Group and £800m Global Offer for Experian
Hochschild Mining
£1.1bn IPO on the London Stock Exchange
Home Retail Group
International Power
£500m Acquisition of Saltend power plant
JSainsbury
$2.5bn Sale of Shaw's to Albertsons
Kesa
£411m Sale of BUT to Decomeubles £1.02bn IPO on the LSE and Paris Euronext
KKR
910m Acquisition of UN RO-Ro 8.3bn Consortium acquisition of Royal Philips Electronics Semiconductor to form NXP
London Stock Exchange
£3.9bn merger with Borsa Italiana Defences against NASDAQ and Macquarie
Permira
2.1bn Acquisition of SBS Broadcasting
Reed Elsevier
Rio Tinto plc
$19.5bn Chinalco partnership $150bn Succesful defence against BHP Billiton $38bn Recommended offer for Alcan
Royal & SunAlliance
£584m Buy out of Codan minorities and £300m rights issue £443m Sale of US business to Arrowpoint Capital
RTL
£248m Acquisition of remaining Channel 5 stake
Shell
Unification of shareholdings onto London Exchange
Sky
£211m Cash offer for Easynet plc
Standard Chartered
£1.8bn Rights Issue $860m Acquisition of American Express Bank $1.2bn Acquisition of Hsinchu Bank in Taiwan
Taylor Wimpey plc
£5bn Merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey
Thomson Reuters
£9.2bn Merger between Thomson and Reuters
Tomkins
Vedanta
$1bn Acquisition of Sesa Goa $1.7bn Acquisition of Asarco $500m Global bond offering
Vodafone
$11.1bn Acquisition of 67% stake in Hutch Essar £8.9bn Sale of Vodafone Japan to Softbank
WPP
Yell
Public affairs advice in connection with the Competition Commission Inquiry into classified directories
People
Partners
- Faeth Birch
- Rory Chisholm
- Jeremy Fielding
- Rollo Head
- Guy Lamming
- James Leviton
- Andy Merrill
- Andrew Mitchell
- Simon Moyse
- James Murgatroyd
- Roland Rudd
- Ed Simpkins
- Mike Smith
- Will Tanner
- Rupert Younger
Partners
Faeth Birch
Faeth joined Finsbury in 1997 and in her fourteen years in financial communications and investor relations has had particularly strong experience in mergers and acquisition communications and has led a number of contested transactions and other high profile communications issues for Finsbury. Recent projects include advising Rio Tinto on its defence against BHP Billiton, Arcelor on its defence against Mittal Steel and BPB on its defence against Saint Gobain and Rio Tinto on its acquisition of Alcan. Faeth is an honours graduate from St Andrews University.
Rory Chisholm
Rory has headed Finsbury's political & regulatory practice since joining the company in April 2000. He is also a Director of FIPRA (Finsbury International Policy & Regulatory Advisors), Finsbury's European and international public affairs network. From 1988-2000 he worked for the political consultancy GJW, latterly as a Director and Head of its Competition & Regulation Unit. Rory advises clients on a wide range of UK and EU political and regulatory developments, including work on the public affairs aspects of competition policy cases. His work on recent projects and transactions includes: advising Banco Santander on the acquisition of Abbey National; advising Aer Lingus in connection with the takeover approach by Ryanair; and advising Yell on the Competition Commission inquiry into the market for classified directory advertising. Rory graduated in modern history from Trinity College, Cambridge University.
Jeremy Fielding
Jeremy joined Finsbury's New York office in 2009. He has over ten years experience counseling directors, executives and communications professionals at U.S. and international clients on situations including media and investor relations, crisis communications, reputation management, litigation support and regulatory investigations, corporate governance and shareholder activism, mergers and acquisitions. He has worked with clients in a range of fields including consumer products, financial services, telecommunications, media, utilities and energy, retail, health care, and education. Jeremy has also worked on special situations for non-profit institutions and leading universities. Previously, Jeremy was partner and member of the Management Committee of Kekst and Company. Jeremy has a PhD in History from Yale University, Masters of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and a B.A. from Leeds University, England.
Rollo Head
Rollo joined Finsbury in 2000 and has over fourteen years of agency financial communications experience, gained in both London and New York. He has worked across a wide range of clients and sectors, with recent projects including the proposed acquisition of Endesa by E.ON in Spain, the demerger of GUS, the sale or IPO of Thames Water, the disposal of Vodafone's Japanese business and the sale of Travelodge to DIC. Rollo started his career at Lehman Brothers International where he obtained the relevant UK and US securities qualifications and is a graduate of Edinburgh University.
Guy Lamming
Guy Lamming joined Finsbury after a 20 year career in accountancy and equity research. His current clients include the GCap, BSkyB and Thomson. Prior to Finsbury Guy worked at Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan Cazenove as a highly rated equity analyst and before that he qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen. Guy studied PPE at Oxford.
James Leviton
James joined Finsbury in 1997 having previously worked in New York advising European companies looking to raise their profile and investor base in the US. In his 15 years in financial communications he has handled a number of contested transactions, IPOs and other high profile M&A activity. In 2007 James advised Thomas Cook on its acquisition of My Travel, Thomson on its merger with Reuters, Carlsberg and Heineken on their acquisition of S&N, Borse Dubai on its acquisition of OMX, Fortis acquisition of ABN and Equitable Life on its disposal of its with-profits business to Prudential. James trained as a securities representative in the UK and is a graduate of Nottingham University.
Andy Merrill
Andy joined Finsbury in 2006 as the Chief Executive of Finsbury US based in New York City. Andy has a broad range of communications experience with project experience including crisis communications for ImClone Systems, strategic communications for the eight dissident former executives of Morgan Stanley - the so-called Group of 8 - to effect leadership and governance reform at the firm, the sale of Grey Advertising to WPP and the merger of Molson and Coors. Andy was previously General Manager of Edelman's global financial communications practice, which he joined from Abernathy MacGregor, a strategic communications consultancy, where he was a partner and Managing Director. Prior to that, Andy was an investment banker for UBS and served as Director of Investor Relations for The Bank of New York. He is a graduate of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and has an MBA in finance from Columbia University in New York.
Andrew Mitchell
Andrew joined Finsbury in 2005. He has worked with major UK and international companies on their financial communications and investor relations, including a wide range of transactions and flotations. Andrew has a particular focus on the natural resources sector, particularly energy and mining. He previously spent seven years as an editor and correspondent at the international news agency, Reuters. including three years as an Editor-in-Charge in New York, directing coverage of the international energy sector. Andrew has more than a decade of experience as a business journalist and has reported widely across the Middle East, the Americas and Africa. He has an MA in English Literature and Language from Edinburgh University.
Simon Moyse
Simon heads the Dubai office of Finsbury. He initially joined Finsbury in 2004 from HM Treasury and has over ten years experience of strategic communications in the both the private and public sectors. Before moving to Dubai Simon was based in Moscow as Managing Director for Global Communications at Renaissance Group. Simon has great experience of leading M&A communications including the successful bids for ABN Amro and Somerfield and several successful defenses of the London Stock Exchange. At HM Treasury Simon was a senior communications adviser to Chancellor Gordon Brown focusing on international and City related policy issues.
James Murgatroyd
James joined Finsbury as a partner in 1996 and subsequently took on the role of Chief Operating Officer. In his 15 years in financial communications he has handled a number of contested transactions, flotations and other high profile communications issues, including recent projects for The London Stock Exchange, Taylor Wimpey and Mitchells & Butlers. James started his career as an investment banker at Dean Witter, where he qualified as a registered securities representative in both the UK and US. He has a degree in economics and politics.
Roland Rudd
Roland Rudd is the Senior Partner of Finsbury, which was acquired by WPP in June 2001. He is a patron and Chairman of NSPCC's Stop Organised Abuse; Chairman of Tate's Corporate Advisory Group; Chairman of Royal Opera House's Advisory Group and a member of its Development Board and a member of The Prince's Rainforests Project Steering Group. A former board member of Britain in Europe, he is the founding Chairman of Business for New Europe. Before founding Finsbury in 1994, he worked as a financial journalist at the Financial Times, The Sunday Correspondent and The Times. He is a former policy coordinator for Lord Owen, and President of the Union at Oxford University, where he read philosophy and theology.
Ed Simpkins
Since joining Finsbury in 2006 Edward has worked on the IPO of Aer Lingus, the sale of Alliance Boots and in Italy on the merger of Banca Intesa with Sanpaolo IMI. Prior to joining Finsbury, Edward was the Companies Editor on the Business desk of the Sunday Telegraph where he worked for seven years. Before the Sunday Telegraph, Edward was for three years the news editor of Estates Gazette, the property industry journal. He studied philosophy at Liverpool University and recently took the Advanced Certificate in Finance at Birkbeck College, part of the University of London. Edward also speaks Italian.
Mike Smith
Mike joined Finsbury as a partner at the start of 2007 with a remit to work across sectors. In his seven years in financial communications, Mike has advised companies on issues ranging through flotations, contested bids and corporate re-positioning. Mike started his career in journalism and worked for 20 years at the Financial Times where his roles included Financial News Editor and Energy Correspondent. He has a degree in history.
Will Tanner
Will leads Finsbury's UK Public Affairs work, having joined Finsbury in 2001 from British Airways. Whilst at BA he had a number of roles including Political Affairs Manager and International Relations Manager. In 2000-2001 he served a secondment to the Private Office of Lord Falconer, then Minister of State at the Cabinet Office. Recent projects at Finsbury include the successful Campaign for Crossrail and the merger between Thomson and Reuters. Will has a public policy degree from Northumbria University and a Masters degree in European Community Studies from Newcastle University. He is a Vice-Chair of Business for New Europe.
Rupert Younger
Rupert co-founded Finsbury in 1994 and is a consulting partner with the firm, a role that he has taken since the beginning of 2007. He has over fifteen years of experience in financial communications, working with major UK and International companies on their financial communications, investor relations and reputation management programmes, and he is a specialist in international IPO's and M&A, having led many of Finsbury's major transactions. His IPO and transaction expertise includes UK, European and US activities for companies including Royal & Sun Alliance (London), Enel (Italy) RTL Group (Luxembourg/London) and Universal Music (US/Europe). He is also responsible for the international operations at Finsbury, co-ordinating at Board level the Group's client and operational development in Europe and the US.
Contact
Tenter House
45 Moorfields
London EC2Y 9AE
+44 20 7251 3801
enquiries-uk@finsbury.com
570 Lexington Avenue
36th Floor
New York, NY 10022
+1 212 303 7600
inquiries-us@finsbury.com
Boulevard Saint Michel 47
Brussels 1040
enquiries-eu@finsbury.com
Work with us
We are always interested to hear from dynamic applicants.
As the first stage in the application process, please email or post your CV to the attention of the Human Resources Manager at your chosen office
Legal
Finsbury Limited
Registered office:
Tenter House
45 Moorfields
London EC2Y 9AE
Registered in England and Wales: 2956243
VAT registration: 649 5163 11
Credits
Design and Art direction - Heat Design
Website and Animation - Mew Media
Original Music - John Scott Cobb
Partners photographs thanks to Alex Simmons
