Asian Companies Listing on AIM

In the past few decades, the Chinese economy has experienced phenomenal growth. And while growth had since slowed, it can’t be ignored that in 2014, China became only the second country in history (after America) to achieve economic output in excess of $10 trillion. In fact, even at the current rate of growth, China expected to surpass the US as the world’s largest economy within the next two decades.

It is no wonder then that foreign investors have been looking for ways to benefit from the Chinese success story. And there are plenty of Chinese investment opportunities right here in the UK. SMEs in China have long struggled to secure capital from Chinese banks and that has sent them elsewhere, including London’s AIM market.

But more recently, the reputation of Chinese AIM listed companies has taken a serious hit. It seems that after a few scandals involving Chinese companies, the market has lost faith in all of them. The problem for most Chinese companies therefore seems to be the result of suspicion and rumour. Of course, this is unfair – the Quindell and Tesco scandals have not resulted in investors blacklisting every UK Company.

So the question is, what can Chinese companies do to increase their appeal to UK investors and continue to tap a valuable source of funding through the AIM market? The simple answer: Transparency. After all, the best way to quash suspicions and rumour is by getting the truth out. So for any Chinese companies listing in London, effectively communicating to potential investors from the beginning is critical – and there are plenty of ways to do this.

The suspicions surrounding Chinese companies listing in London are largely fuelled by a literal lack of visibility. So first and foremost, Chinese companies seeking admission to the London Stock Exchange need to bear in mind that potential investors are based abroad and therefore not able to directly observe the day to day operations of the business. Transparency, achieved in part through increased publicity, is therefore key to bolstering investor confidence.

But an effective communications program requires much more than reaching out to the UK national and investor press only briefly ahead of the IPO. Companies need to communicate through wider media outlets and for a longer period of time in the build up to Admission in order to achieve a successful and hopefully oversubscribed fundraising.

One way to do this is by launching Corporate profiling exercises on the home front. Even when targeting a predominantly overseas audience, the relevance of local and trade press coverage should not be underestimated before an IPO.

This is particularly salient for smaller companies. UK journalists are unlikely to have heard of an Asian based SME considering an AIM IPO. If British journalists can discover an existing profile through good trade and local press coverage (and where appropriate a social media profile) as they go online for further information, it will increase the likelihood of positive UK press coverage at IPO.

Local media coverage is also important for investors, as it plays a key role in reassuring their confidence. If a company attempts to promote itself amongst UK investors without an already established press profile, it could make a company’s story, no matter how compelling, harder to believe. And given the current climate of suspicion, that is risk Chinese companies simply can’t take.

Simply put, a proactive communications program is strong evidence of a company’s willingness to honour its commitment to new and existing shareholders. And, perhaps more importantly, increased transparency will help reassure investors and help regain trust of the market. This strategy will not only help Chinese companies: With London seeking to cement its status as the world’s leading financial centre there is simply no way investors here can dismiss companies operating in a country set to become the world’s economic powerhouse.

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Corporate Communications: The double-edged sword of Social Media

There’s a big reason why corporations should be monitoring social media. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the increasing number of retail investors using social media to discuss and research their trades. The fact that the average investor can now easily access and share information about a stock means companies need to be aware of what is happening. Unlike the chatrooms often used by retail investors, social media reaches a much wider and mainstream audience.

Social media has undoubtedly changed the way the world communicates. So why are many corporations ignoring or misusing what is arguably the most influential means of communication in the twenty-first century?

The corporate communications industry has arguably been slow to embrace social media. Perhaps that’s because this channel of communication is not taken seriously enough – it’s often still associated with embarrassing Facebook profiles. But social media has evolved in the last decade to the point where a lack of social media strategy is not only a missed opportunity – it’s risky and perhaps even irresponsible.

Consider the many benefits of having a corporate social media presence. Social media can be used to respond swiftly, and very publicly, to an unforeseen crisis. The recent example of the GermanWings crash demonstrates this: The Company was able to immediately respond to media reports that one of its planes had lost contact, and they continued to use Twitter to update the public as soon as the information became available.

This points to perhaps one of the greatest benefits of social media for corporate communications: Control. Social media can and should be used to get the message you want out to a wider audience without an intermediary such as a journalist. Newsfeeds and blogs offer the opportunity to create, and control content on what a corporation is doing, how it does it and who is doing it. It increases transparency and is helpful for everyone – clients, investors, potential investors and the media.

Social media’s widespread reach is also why this channel of communication is a double-edged sword. Just ask the investment bank JP Morgan Chase, who once invited the public to “Tweet a Q using #AskJPM.” It was meant to give career advice but ended up going viral, with twitter users asking questions such as, “Did you have a specific number of people’s lives you needed to ruin before you considered your business model a success?” and “What section of the poor & disenfranchised have you yet to exploit for profit, & how are you working to address that?”

In the post-credit crunch era, it should have been obvious that this Twitter campaign was a bad idea. But that doesn’t mean JP Morgan should have avoided social media entirely. Social media is also a useful way to measure sentiment. This process of identifying and assessing what is being said about a corporation or brand is known as social media listening. Had JP Morgan done this first, it would have been able to predict the results of #AskJPM.

Simply put, a corporate communications strategy can’t ignore social media but also has to be very careful when it comes to execution. It gets down to the heart of the purpose of PR: Enhancing and protecting reputations. And in the digital era, it’s pretty obvious this can’t be done without a well thought out social media strategy.

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Weekly Wrap Up: Humility Before Profit

Could an incident that occurred a decade ago create more reputational damage now for the company involved than when the incident first occurred? This is arguably the case for Thomas Cook, who have been under immense pressure in recent weeks over their handling of the high-profile deaths of two children on holiday in Corfu in 2006.

The Independent’s view “a tragedy to a corporate disaster” has been widely voiced, with the public and media consensus being that Thomas Cook’s communications strategy is “too little too late”.

Timeline of events:

• April 2015 – Inquest begins into deaths of the Shepherd children.
• 13 May – Manny Fontenla-Novoa, CEO at the time of the tragedy, appears as a witness to the inquest but refuses to answer a series of questions. Peter Fankhauser, current CEO, tells inquest that Thomas Cook has done "nothing wrong". Inquest jury returns verdict of unlawful killing and says Thomas Cook "breached its duty of care".
• 17 May – Shepherd family reveals it received £350,000 in compensation from the hotel owners for their children’s deaths. It emerges later that day that the hotel paid Thomas Cook up to £3.5m in compensation.
• 18 May – Thomas Cook offers to pay compensation it received to Unicef and apologises to the family.
• 20 May – Fankhauser apologises to the family and says he is "deeply sorry".
• 21 May – Fankhauser meets with the parents face to face, giving a “sincere and heartfelt apology” and agrees to donate an undisclosed sum to six charities of the parents’ choice. In addition, the parents requested that the bungalow where the tragedy took place be demolished and replaced with a “lasting tribute” in the form of a playground.

Thomas Cook’s mistakes and subsequent quick fixes have caused immeasurable damage to the firm’s reputation and future value as they enter a crucial trading period. The Group would expect to be selling holidays to families gearing up for the summer break. Meanwhile, it has been reported that around £75m has been wiped off the company’s share price this week as investor’s dumped stock. Only time will tell whether the share price will recover. This will largely depend on any subsequent actions the Company take to stop the rot.

Fankauser has now done what his predecessor should have done back in 2006; given the parents a sincere apology.

Holly Ward, co-founder of The Forge commented: “As a nation we respond well to humility; even if Peter Fankhauser didn’t want to imply his company was to blame by offering an apology to the parents of Bobby and Christi Shepherd, a little humility would have gone a long way in showing his company actually cared. The Unicef donation smacked of a quick fix that missed its mark.”

The incident can serve as a lesson not only for Thomas Cook, but the majority of companies. Thomas Cook went far too much down the legal route, allowing its lawyers and bean counters to dictate how it dealt with a grieving family, instead of actioning a robust crisis communications plan, or having the inclination to do the right thing.

Julian Pike, Head of Reputation Management at Farrer & Co stated: “From the outset, Thomas Cook should have made the family its priority, irrespective of the legal advice or insurers' requirements. Its own financial wellbeing should also have come a long way second.”



This week, Abchaps hosted an Asia themed market lunch where economic opportunities in the region were explored and the potential impact on the London IPO market was discussed.



Andrew Penny joined EY from JP Morgan as Senior Advisor to its real estate corporate finance team; Judith Mackenzie, Partner at Acuity Capital and Senior Investment Manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Growth Capital, joined the board of Quoted Companies Alliance, whilst Kelly Tubman Hardy joined Hogan Lovells’ corporate practice in Baltimore from DLA Piper.



“Stop the rot”: to take action against something bad, before it spreads and becomes worse



If craft beer is your thing, head along to the Old Royal Naval College, and try over 80 different types of draft beer at Brewfest; Greenwich.

This weekend sees a particularly British pastime, with the Gloucestershire cheese rolling taking place, where you can throw yourself down a hill after Cheddar!

Finally, Kew Gardens is holding a Full of Spice festival, starting this weekend. With everything from a Strictly Spice dance-off to a pop up bar, this festival has everything.

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Weekly Wrap Up: The Anti-immigrant Immigrant

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney inadvertently put himself in the running to become UKIP’s new leader this week while delivering the quarterly Inflation Report. Never mind that Carney comes from a country built on the backs of immigrants, somehow the Bank’s forecast of economic conditions in the UK was translated into an anti-immigration rant by some newspapers.

The Daily Mail headline that followed Carney’s press conference read, “Foreign workers drag down UK wages, says bank chief: Carney’s explosive intervention as number of EU migrants working here hits 2 million.” The Express ran the following emphatic headline: “Foreign workers ARE dragging down UK wages: Bank of England’s shock warning to Britain.”

But it wasn’t just the predictable Daily Mail and Express that ran the immigrant scare story: The Times headline stated, “Migrants ‘threaten economic recovery’.”

So how did the apolitical Central Bank suddenly make headlines usually attributed to Nigel Farage?

It seems the Canadian banker fell victim to the UK media’s drive for sensational headlines. What he actually said was: “In recent years, labour supply has expanded significantly owing to higher participation rates among older workers, a greater willingness to work longer hours and strong population growth, partly driven by higher net migration. These positive labour supply shocks have contained wage growth in the face of robust employment growth.”

Yes, Carney mentions net migration. But his first two points focus on British workers, which the Daily Mail and others conveniently chose to ignore. However, Carney clarified his comments on BBC Radio 4 the next morning by pointing out that the increase in labour supply is down to British workers taking more hours, and older workers staying in employment, and that over the last two years, increases in those two factors have been 10 times more important than migrants. In other words, you can blame your colleagues that stay late every day and refuse to retire for your stagnating wage.

Shortly after that clarification, the headlines began to look much more sensible: The Independent ran a story titled, “Bank of England governor Mark Carney says UK productivity not harmed by migrant workers.” Business Insider bluntly headlined its story, “No, Mark Carney is not anti-immigration.”

Of course it’s almost absurd that Carney, a foreigner who came to work in the UK, even has to defend himself against anti-immigration allegations. Still, what happened to him can happen to any business or prominent individual. The media can, and will, twist the truth. So that’s why it’s important to note that the Bank of England responded almost perfectly by having Carney quickly dispel any misunderstandings. In short, Carney and the Bank of England won this battle against bad press because they fought back in a timely fashion with the best weapon possible: The Truth.



This week Abchaps took some special guests to mingle with old friends at City institution Gulls Egg Luncheon at Merchant Taylors Hall; and attended Rushlight’s Cleantech event ‘Getting CCS in the UK to happen’, hosted by Smith and Williamson. Abchaps also headed to the Gorkana Media breakfast briefing with Bloomberg, to hear the Company’s new direction, including the newly launched Bloomberg Europe website and how PRs can use Bloomberg’s services to benefit their clients.

Two of our graduates also attended the next stage of their FinanceTalking training, “Finance Essentials for Communicators” focusing on understanding corporate finance and accounting concepts, as well as learning how to use numbers and KPIs in order to tell a positive financial story. Back at home, we hosted another successful Oil and Gas focused Market Lunch, where it was reassuring to see deals are still being for near term projects with good management teams.



Charles Russell Speechlys promoted Suzi Gatward to real estate Partner, whilst WH Ireland has appointed Roland Kitson Head of Business Development for wealth management. Paul Stevens, who has headed up Olswang’s international intellectual property practice group since 2013, was appointed Chief Executive of the law firm.



“Quarterly inflation report”: It’s normally about as exciting as the title implies, but this week the Bank of England’s forecast of economic conditions in the UK made headlines for Mark Carney’s supposed anti-immigration rhetoric.



This weekend, the international rugby 7s is coming to Twickenham, so celebrate in a carnival of fancy dress. For this year, the theme is ‘out of this world’. Go big or go home!

If beer, rugby, and aliens aren’t necessarily your thing, the Natural History Museum is holding an afterhours ‘Night Safari’. Seen as time travelling across three centuries, visitors will be able to see this cathedral of knowledge devoid of its usual madding crowds.

Finally, with spring finally showing its face, London’s rooftops are becoming pleasant places to be again. The Rooftop Film Club is one of the best ways of seeing a film, out in the open air, with cocktails and deckchairs.

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Weekly Wrap Up: The £5bn tweet

Twitter got a taste of its own medicine this week when its first quarter earnings were leaked… via a tweet. Irony aside, this was no joke: it only took four tweets of 140 characters or less to wipe more than £5bn off of Twitter’s stock in the final hours of trading on Tuesday.

So how did Twitter become the victim of its own viral reach?

Twitter was supposed to announce its first quarter earnings after close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange (where the company is listed). Unfortunately for Twitter, somebody at NASDAQ, which runs Twitter’s investor relations site, decided it would be a good idea to post the results early.

Posting the results two hours early on the investor relations website might not have been such a catastrophe if no one had noticed. But a financial data platform called Selerity uses automated technology to go through the various sources and detect important events for the markets. It’s known as data scraping and it has become a powerful tool for banks, hedge funds and proprietary trading firms – in other words, those trying to get an edge over the markets.

It wasn’t the first time Selerity struck – Microsoft is among their other victims – and it probably won’t be the last. And it isn’t just Selerity that leaks earnings – according to the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg journalists are known for trying to find corporate news releases early. All it takes is typing in the web address for a company’s earnings release and then adjusting the URL to change the number of the quarter. So it seems that this problem is quite preventable with a password, firewall, or even waiting to post the results.

What the leak meant for Twitter was that the Company didn't have the chance to present the results in a formal statement, which would have undoubtedly positioned them more favourably. There was certainly some positive news in the report: Twitter surpassed the 300 million active users mark for the first time. Instead, the bad news got out while markets were still trading and Twitter completely lost control of the narrative.

The Twitter debacle demonstrates the power and influence of social media in Financial PR and investor relations. It’s an excellent way to get good news out fast, but also difficult to control. After all, apparently not even Twitter itself can prevent damaging tweets.



As well as multiple sets of client results this week, Abchaps hosted a Technology themed Market Lunch this week where the discussion included cyber securtiy, and a sector generalist one.



Edison announced three UK equity analyst appointments: Neil Basten joins its industrials team from USS Investment Management; Lucy Codrington joins the healthcare team from SC Strategy, and Eric Opara joins the technology team from M&G Investment. Meanwhile Fidelity Worldwide Investment appointed Sajiv Vaid to its fixed income investment team as co-manager of the Fidelity MoneyBuilder Income and Fidelity Extra Income funds.



"Viral Reach" – The measurement of the number of people who saw or shared a tweet or social media post. A Tweet can now potentially reach over 300 million people - which Twitter learned the hard way is not always a good thing.



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Weekly Wrap Up: Minimise risk to your Corporate Reputation

The value of a good corporate reputation cannot be understated. It’s one of the main reasons businesses invest in communications and public relations. That’s why tracking media trends and watching for developments that signal risks, as well as opportunities, should be part of any corporate communications strategy.

This week there was a prime example of exactly why this matters so much. CEO of fashion retailer Next, Simon Wolfson, made headlines when he criticised an organisation dedicated to urging businesses to pay a so-called living wage. He claimed that £6.70 an hour is enough to live on for some people. Coming from a man titled Lord, worth an estimated £100 million and who took home a £4.6 million pay package last year, this out-of-touch comment would have been a PR disaster at the best of times. However, his outrageous remark came on the same day that Next posted bumper annual figures: pre-tax profit increased 12.5% to £794.8 million and the dividend rose by 16.3%. These results should, and probably would have, dominated media coverage of Next if not for Lord Wolfson’s poor judgement.

It would have helped if Lord Wolfson, or his communications advisors, had been paying attention to just how controversial living wage discussions have become. In the US, for example, Walmart and McDonald’s were among the major corporations that were villainised in the press due to their refusal to pay a living wage. Low paid employees at both companies even went on strike to demand a better wage.

Corporate missteps like this naturally generate plenty of bad publicity and are detrimental to an organisation. But arguably the worst part is that this damage could have easily been avoided by tracking recent media trends. If that had happened at Next, maybe they would have realised that someone who makes £4.6 million a year should refrain from providing “thought leadership” on the living wage debate.



This week Abchaps welcomed some of our UK IPREX partners to our offices, to discuss how our complementary services can further benefit our clients; joined Equity Development for an evening where they hosted three exciting and innovative company presentations within the media and technology sector for the City and PCIM community; and also attended Gorkana’s breakfast briefing, hosted by Director magazine. This newly relaunched title offers a direct line to C-Suite occupiers, and with its new look, Director does away with the usually drab vision of the board room.



Simon MacKinnon has been appointed Asia strategy adviser at the asset management firm Old Mutual Global Investors. Panmure Gordon has hired Patric Johnson as head of securities. He will also serve on Panmure’s Board.



“Living wage” - the amount an individual needs to earn to cover the basic costs of living. So maybe Lord Wolfson does know a thing or two about a living wage? His £4.6 million pay package should be just about enough to survive in London.



What says Hipster more than food served from a van? Get your kicks this weekend at Urban Food Fest, a revolving cast of food stalls and trucks serving a UN worth list of food cultures. All taking place in a Shoreditch car park, it could only be more zeitgeist if it came with a moustache.

Continuing the theme of facial hirsuteness, it is currently impossible to be more than six feet from a man with facial topiary. Love it or hate it, it has become part of our culture. So celebrate or castigate at Somerset House, whose exhibition Beard is open until Sunday.

Benedict Cumberbatch may have been taken off the market, but the Museum of London is still offering the opportunity to Sleep with Sherlock. Included in this all night event are a plethora of themed opportunities, ranging from a three course dinner, talks from detective specialists, right through to ghost stories told in the depths of the museum.

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Weekly Wrap Up: Can Tesco turnaround its tarnished image?

Say what you will about Tesco, but there is no denying that the UK’s biggest retailer has been very good at least one thing in the past few months: generating headlines. The problem is most of that press coverage was not exactly positive. In fact, it has been pretty bad.

Tesco’s trouble really started last year, when it faced a string of profit warnings amid falling sales as the British supermarket giant struggled to compete with Lidl and Aldi’s low prices, which led to the ousting of the Company’s directors. By the end of year, it went from bad to worse for Tesco when it was revealed that an accounting “error” led the Company to overstate its profits by a cool £250 million. (That number has since crept up to £263 million.) Not surprisingly, Tesco became one of the UK media’s favourite villains of 2014.

The New Year was looking like a fresh start for Tesco when investors actually responded quite well to new CEO Dave Lewis’ proposed turnaround plan. The plan, which involves slashing prices and closing stores, should save the company £250m per year. This led to a 22% increase in Tesco’s share price in the past month despite the fact that Tesco’s underlying business performance doesn’t seem to have improved significantly during this time and that the rating agency Moody’s decided to downgrade the supermarket’s credit rating to junk.

The increase is pretty good news for Tesco, especially after such a dismal 2014, and the jump in share price suggests that the market believes in Lewis’ overhaul plan. Yet a quick scan of the headlines shows that these positive developments are still being overshadowed by negative stories.

The turnaround plan has certainly been getting plenty of press coverage, but mostly because it has been revealed that 43 stores will be closing and thousands of employees will be losing their jobs. The positive story there though was that the turnaround plan has led to Tesco cutting prices, which is news that will definitely make consumers happy.

But the bad news just keeps coming. This week Tesco has again made headlines after a new investigation was launched by Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) into allegations that the supermarket has not been paying suppliers and in some cases even charging them for preferential treatment. In fairness to Tesco’s new management this is probably not something that happened under their tenure.

Another story that made headlines this week was that Tesco has agreed to pay its former CEO and CFO, who were in charge at the time of the accounting fiasco, a combined £2.1m. So-called golden goodbyes such as these tend not to go down all too well with shareholders. And really, why would they? A CEO can run a company into the ground and yet is still entitled to a big pay-out when he or she is fired. It’s certainly a good way to generate press coverage – just not the kind any company would want. But this is where Tesco actually deserves some credit – they did try to withhold the pay-out. Ultimately, the legal battle would have been pricier and that’s obviously not good for shareholders. So Tesco should really try and get that story out, along with the fact that they may even try to recover that payment.

What Tesco really demonstrates is the uphill media battle that most companies trying to make a post-scandal-comeback face. To give another example, since the financial crisis, many banks became and still remain easy targets for the media and key cultural influencers; Russell Brand springs to mind, to keep generating negative headlines and sentiment. So that’s why a company’s external message communications, and ultimately media relations are paramount. It will be a challenge, but Tesco’s promising turnaround plan and jump in share price gives the Company every opportunity to reposition itself in the media.

For now, it’s almost guaranteed that we will keep seeing Tesco headlines. It remains to be seen if these will be good or bad.



This week Abchaps were out and about at Zeus Capital's Evening with Sir Ranulph Fiennes at Claridge's; celebrating Aquatic Foods Group's IPO at the London Stock Exchange, and hosting a Market Lunch.



This week N +1 Singer made two new hires, Lauren Kettle joining the corporate finance department as a senior associate, having previously worked at Merchant Securities and Northland Capital Partners. Alex Laughton-Scott also joins the corporate finance team, arriving as an associate from PwC. Finally, Richard Hickinbotham, previously of Charles Stanley joins Cantor Fitzgerald Europe as their head of European equity research.



“Turnaround”: The financial recovery of a troubled company. Investors can profit from a turnaround by accurately anticipating the improvement of a poorly performing company



Are you a fan of vintage film? Is so, the BFI will be your nirvana this weekend, as Katherine Hepburn takes centre stage for her very own season, celebrating one of Hollywood’s most iconic leading ladies.

How about afternoon tea, like the little sandwiches but find the whole affair a little staid? Well you’re in luck, as Kettner’s in Soho is doing what Soho does best, and is offering a High Societease, the opportunity to enjoy scones, tea, (and of course Champagne) whilst being entertained by burlesque, cabaret, and circus performances.

Finally, if you feel you haven’t seen enough of the City this week, how about jazz inside the Gherkin? Usually the preserve of its own private members club, this Sunday you have the opportunity to see the inside of this iconic building, enjoy fantastic music with performers who shared stages with the likes of Jools Holland and Van Morrison, all with a free cocktail.

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Weekly Wrap Up: Hostile takeover of an iconic recipe

When Cadbury was acquired by Kraft Foods a few years ago, many British chocolate lovers immediately feared the worst: the American company would tinker with the recipes of their beloved treats.

Well this month that nightmare became a reality.

It all began with reports that a new batch of Creme Eggs “tasted different”. So in an instance of sound investigative journalism, The Sun newspaper contacted the company, whose name has been changed to Mondelez International since the takeover.

A Mondelez spokesperson confirmed the worst. The Creme Egg recipe has indeed been altered, meaning the iconic Easter egg will no longer be made with Dairy Milk chocolate. The shell will now be made of a standard cocoa mix chocolate.

What unfolded next was nothing short of a PR disaster. Online outrage and calls for a boycott of Creme Eggs and Cadbury were followed by a slew of negative press coverage. One man from Liverpool was so angry he started a petition demanding that Mondolez change the recipe back.

Clearly, there is such a thing as bad publicity. City A.M. pointed out this week that the YouGov Brand Index Buzz score, which indicates if a respondent has heard something very positive or negative about a company, has plummeted since the revelation. The purchase consideration metric, which shows whether a respondent would buy an item, also dropped after the change in recipe was announced.

This whole mishap could easily have been prevented. It seems Mondelez failed to have an adequate PR plan in place. Also, they only confessed that they had meddled with the recipe once confronted by The Sun. There was almost certainly a better way to deliver the bad news. Perhaps Mondelez should have picked up on the anger and resentment that arose when an American company took over this beloved UK brand. If the company had done more to understand that to the British consumer the Creme Egg is iconic, maybe they would have realised they probably shouldn’t ‘Americanise’ the recipe. In that respect, the way to avoid all this bad publicity is actually quite simple: don’t change a recipe that has served the company extremely well for over 50 years. Or, to put it in more American terms: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.



Zeus Capital announced three appointments: Nick How has arrived from Oriel Securities as corporate finance director; Hugo Chance joins as director and head of family offices having previously headed up the angel investor forum Angels and Equity under Truestone Group; and Claire Frangou joins from Deloitte as business development director. Meanwhile, PwC appointed Naomi Saragoussi, previously of Mercer, to develop its private healthcare and group protection advisory business.



Americanisation: The influence the United States has on other cultures. It’s a term often considered to be synonymous with progress and innovation, although British consumers of Cadbury’s Creme Eggs might disagree



Felt the toll of the worst week of the year (it’s a scientific fact…)? Well try to escape blue Monday with the LOCO London Comedy Film Festival – based at the BFI on the Southbank. With every genre of comedy covered, from Ealing classics to brand new British films, LOCO’s mission is to kickstart the next generation of British comedy film-writers, why not try out the world premiere Lost in Karastan?

If film’s your thing but you fancy something more cerebral, why not try BAFTA, Backstage, the latest photographic exhibition from the BAFTA archive. With an exclusive insight into the backstage workings of Britain’s most impressive film event of the year, see candid shots of such disparate stars as Annette Bening, Brad Pitt, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. As an opportunity to see behind the film industry’s visage, this is not one to be missed.

Or, if you like nothing more than a wander to your local on a weekend, why not try wandering to someone else’s? Random London Walk’s, a tour which plays out by luck and chance more than judgement, have offered a Pub Special for this weekend. With where you go completely put in the hands of fate, you pick a card, and it tells you where you’re going. With a starting point near Covent Garden, this tour is for those who are confident they can get themselves home after a night out, where ever they end up!

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Weekly Wrap Up: The Great Firewall of China

Will economic ambitions force Beijing to liberalise internet policy?

In the build-up to the unveiling of China’s answer to Apple, Xiaomi’s new smartphone this week, a source leaked to Reuters that they had previously been approached by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about a possible investment, but that the deal fell through.

The meeting between Zuckerberg and Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun came ahead of the smartphone maker’s $1.1 billion fundraising last month. That brought the company’s valuation to $45 billion, making Xiaomi the world’s most valuable start-up just four years after being founded. In fact, Xiaomi now comes in just behind Samsung and Apple in sales, meaning it is one of the top three smartphone makers in the world. So it’s pretty obvious why Zuckerberg was eager to go into business with Xiaomi.

Why, then, did the talks fail? It was said that part of the reason Lei turned down the offer was due to the potential political fallout of selling a stake in his company to Facebook. The U.S. social network is banned in China. It’s all part of a bigger effort by the Chinese government, which is afraid of the impact of a free internet. This has led to the implementation of all sorts of controls, dubbed the ‘Great Firewall of China’, and the blacklisting of a number of popular social media sites. In 2009, Facebook was added to that list.

Facebook is hardly alone in this regard. A more recent example came at the end of 2014 when Google’s Gmail was blocked. There was a huge outcry, including complaints from business travellers who could no longer access their email. Their Chinese counterparts were also frustrated with the increasing difficulty of conducting business internationally.

Both the failed Facebook/Xiaomi deal and the Gmail ban highlight the difficulty that international companies can face when investing in China. It is essential that any PR strategy takes into account that many means of communication are banned. Words must be carefully chosen because both domestic and international companies can have their online presence shut down completely if they violate the ban.

It is a delicate balancing act. Consider the example of Yahoo!, which decided to comply with China’s restrictions. Yahoo! then came under fire in the U.S. and found themselves defending their decision to Congress. The Company then had to admit that that it could not protect the privacy of its Chinese customers from authorities. One customer whose identity was turned over to authorities was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Obviously, when this news leaked it resulted in plenty of bad press for Yahoo! outside of China. 

The internet ban is certainly something to consider for any company wanting to do business in China. Ultimately, the economic implications of this firewall could be a far greater threat to sentiments amongst citizens than any online communications would have been. In order to facilitate cross-border investments, it is vital for the CCP to revise its media policy. For a little advice, Communist Party leaders might want to Google the phrase, “it’s the economy, stupid.” Oh wait. They can’t.



This week Abchaps hosted a market lunch with a focus on Asia. The group discussed the market sentiment and how Asia-based companies are developing in the London market in order to gauge future investor interest. Abchaps also celebrated David Brennan’s recent promotion at Gowlings to celebrate his. We congratulate him again on reaching Partner at the firm.



Charles Stanley appointed Peter Geikie-Cobb, formerly at F&C to head its Matterley business, with a new bond fund to be provided. Meanwhile, Ian Williams, previously at SGH Martineau,joined Baker Tilly as the International Lead for its Restructuring and Recovery service line. Eric Pang joined JLL to lead its UK markets group China desk.



“Great Firewall of China”- a term to describe Internet Censorship in China under a variety of laws, administrative regulations, and execution effort



Celebrate having Scotland as part of the UK tonight by attending the Ceilidh Club Burns Night – London’s biggest Burns Night event. With three hours of energetic ceilidh dancing and a buffet dinner of traditional Scottish haggis, neeps and tatties, it is a great way to socialise, exercise and have a laugh with friends!

If you are around Greenwich over the weekend or next week pop into the Royal Observatory which hosts the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The free exhibition showcases remarkable feats of astrophotography entered into four categories: ‘Earth and Space’, ‘Our Solar System’, ‘Deep Space’ and ‘Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year’ for under-16s.

Take the opportunity over the weekend to visit The Nation Gallery’s exhibition which has become one of London’s biggest attractions since opening last week. ‘Rembrandt: the Late Works’ shows just four self-portrait canvases and a tiny etching by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, all made during the last 11 years of his life. This may not sound like a great deal but tell that to the queues outside the National Gallery!

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Weekly Wrap Up: Christmas has begun

Over the last week the UK has seen the official start to Christmas; John Lewis told us so.

John Lewis started this off in 2009, seeing Coca-Cola’s Santa and raising him, in no particular order, a penguin, some snowmen, and unlikely friendships between woodland creatures. Ever since, companies have rushed to get in on the act, pushing ever greater briefs, backed by ever larger budgets. All in the attempt to attract shoppers through their doors. But is this money well spent? Or have these adverts become so removed from what advertising traditionally stands for that they could potentially damage the high street they’re meant to save?

Simply put, the cost of these adverts is enough to make any company's CFO turn ashen faced. With a budget of £7 million, John Lewis tops the charts, and the sheer scale of Sainsbury’s WW1 extravaganza means it can’t be far behind. But one thing was conspicuously missing from both adverts, and that’s a product.

Whilst you may now be able to buy a Monty penguin for the sum of £95, and Sainsbury’s will sell you vintage chocolate for £1, neither make product a focal point during their two or three minutes of air time. Having been placed in the most expensive slots on British TV, the question has to be asked, ‘is this good advertising?’

On the surface, the answer surely is yes. In terms of outreach, these adverts achieve circulation that could never have been expected even a few years ago. In less than 24 hours, Sainsbury’s saw online viewing figures of nearly one million, whilst being shared on Facebook nearly 42,000 times. This pales into insignificance when compared to John Lewis, who in just a week garnered viewing figures of a scarcely believable 13.5 million, with Facebook shares of 154,000.

With not a single product advertised, the effect these adverts have on sales is incredible. John Lewis announced this week that its like for like sales for the first week of November were up 6%.  The retailer has a proud history of defying the credit crunch, posting positive festive figures every year since 2009.

Whilst these lavishly funded, sentimental adverts may be achievable for large companies with large budgets, smaller companies are having to get more creative. The irony of these messages is that whilst they may cost millions of pounds to produce, their greatest success comes from an (almost) completely free source, social media. Every retweet, share, view, comes at no cost to the retailer. Whilst their slots on television may cost the company, their online presence does not. Therefore, this is how smaller companies can succeed.

Ironically, while online shopping has for a long time been described as the end of the high street, online advertising may be what saves it. One of the greatest adverts to come out of last year’s Super Bowl was not the blockbuster Budweiser advert, but a tweet sent by Oreo. Quick thinking led to a simple quip being shared round the world over 20,000 times, garnered 525 million media impressions, even making Adweek’s top five ‘ads’ of the night. From this, the answer appears simple, use digital, save physical.



This week, Abchaps had a brilliant evening at the Nabarro London Wall launch. The evening kicked of with a fantastic cooking demonstration from Michelin Chef Michel Roux Jnr, along with magical entertainment.



Eversheds  appointed Cathryn Vanderspar, formally of Berwin Leighton Paisner, head of their London tax tea, whilst Mark Brown joined Westhouse Securities as executive chairman. Brown was previously chief executive of Collins Stewart Hawkpoint. Meanwhile, Pinsent Masons announced the appointment of Meriam Alrashid as an international arbitration partner in its global construction practice in London. A fluent Arabic speaker, she joins from Crowell & Moring. Finally, Walker Crips appointed Matt Ennion as Investment Director. He joins from Towry.



"Evangelism Marketing" - a form of word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM), in which companies established a loyal group of customers with strong belief in their products. These customers willingly and actively convince others to buy their products.



Enjoy some ice-skating in the beautiful splendour of Somerset House’s neoclassical courtyard. Then rest those sore legs (and bums) in the Skate Lounge for a well-deserved après-skate, where you can indulge in a cocktail, fondue or tasty treat (or all three)!

If you’re looking for something different, head along to the Hyper Japan Christmas Market at Olympia open this weekend only where you can immerse yourself in Japanese culture and find some interesting Christmas gifts for family and friends. Also at Olympia this weekend is the BBC Good Food Show which promises to be delicious!

The highly anticipated Regent Street Christmas lights switch-on will be taking place on Sunday. It's an evening of Christmas tunes, celebrity talent and fireworks. A London tradition since 1948, when the Regent Street Association first decorated the street with Christmas trees, the lacing of the street with lights marks the official countdown to Christmas day. The show will begin at 4pm with the switch on moment taking place at approximately 4.45pm.

And finally, for all those rugby enthusiasts, the Autumn Internationals continue on Saturday with the headline game, England vs South Africa kicking off at 2.30pm and Wales taking on Fiji at the same time. Scotland face the almighty New Zealand at 5.30pm and finally, Ireland play Georgia on Sunday at 2.30pm.

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Weekly Wrap Up: A Lesson in Crisis Managment

Starbucks is a Company that has suffered from its fair share of negative media coverage of late. However, this week it may well have dodged another bullet with a carefully and most likely pre-planned demonstration of crisis management…

An article in the New York Times this Wednesday reported on the strife and struggles of the Starbucks worker, Janette Navarro. Her difficulties were largely driven by the lack of consideration by her employer. The paper published an article on the Starbucks employee’s work schedule and its damaging effects on her personal and academic life. As a mother of a 4 year-old, Janette struggles to drop her son at school whilst also attending her associate degree classes. On several occasions, she was made to work until late at night and then had to start in the early hours the following day, followed by another long shift.

The public’s concerns raised in the article could have led to a public relations disaster for Starbucks. However, immediately after the article was published, the company responded to the situation. It announced that it will update its scheduling software and allow for more human input from managers to achieve more stable and consistent work schedules for shift workers.

Cliff Burrows, group president for the U.S., the Americas and the Teavana division also sent an e-mail to all staff on Thursday morning expressing his concerns over the situation. He says that “taking care of our partners is a responsibility I take very personally. I was troubled to read a New York Times story this morning regarding scheduling challenges one partner, Janette, faced as she strives to balance work while also pursuing a college degree and raising her son.” He has also promised to ensure that workers with commutes longer than an hour are transferred to stores closer to their homes.

The response provides a great example of how companies should respond to a potential corporate crisis. The response was immediate, humane, and thoughtful. In addition, by responding directly to the staff, as well as addressing the media, Burrows as a member of the senior management, demonstrated respect to his fellow colleagues. Very often, rather than taking a defensive position in reaction to a crisis situation, admitting mistakes can be one of the most effective tactics. A PR program is essential, but it can only drive results with the support of a sincere and supportive management team, coupled with real actions.



This week, Liberum hired Anna Hartropp to its banking team, who previously worked at Laird. Jonathan Brown, previously senior associate at DWF Fishburns, joined Clyde & Co as a commercial disputes partner, whilst Ernst & Young appointed Jay Nibbe as the global vice chair for tax. He has been with EY since 1985.



The Seven Dails Spotlight event takes place tomorrow in Covent Garden. There will be various outdoor activities, including an Airstream photo booth, Sol Cinema, the world’s smallest solar movie theatre and an Emergency Poet, the world’s first and only mobile poetic first aid service.

London largest free Jazz Festival is taking place in Canary Wharf, featuring jazz-funk, Latin, big band, soul, Instrumental, folk and jazz music. Rising stars such as Andy Sheppard Quartet, Ciyo Brown’s the Motown Sound and the Riot Jazz Brass Brand will be performing.

For fellow food lovers, the Foodie Festival takes place at Battersea Park this weekend, serving popular street food. Top London chefs will be cooking live in the Chefs Theatre, whilst experts will be giving tips in the Cake & Bake Theatre and BBQ Area.

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Weekly Wrap Up: Boris Johnson - zip wire to Prime Minister?

This week Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced the explosive news that he will, “in all probability”, work towards becoming an MP at the next general election.

As with every statement that Boris puts out, the media coverage was both wide ranging and abundant. The Express was kind to the incumbent Mayor, quoting the Culture Secretary Sajid Javid “it’s fantastic news”, whilst The Guardian was more sceptical. It focused on how the announcement “drew accusations of hypocrisy” in regards to his previous statements that he would not hold two political offices at once.

Stepping past the issue as to whether or not he would make a good MP (again), the dramatic announcement through Bloomberg says more about his long-term political intentions than his short-term plans to become an MP. A Mayor of London running to be an MP is not a new thing. It is exactly what his predecessor Ken Livingstone did for a year, so the news should not have attracted as much attention as it did.

Some in the City have speculated that Boris will do anything for a headline, an idea that suggests this announcement was just another headline grabbing ploy ahead of a much bigger campaign. Few can forget the famous zip wire event of 2012 when he was famously left stuck and dangling and his name subsequently splashed across the media. Did the zip wire really stick by accident, or was it planned?

Fast forward two years... Does Boris truly plan on running for MP and then “sticking” with these two roles? Or is he simply building his reputation ahead of a bigger and more prime ministerial campaign?

Almost every piece published on the topic speculated that this move could simply be a small step for Boris ahead of challenging David Cameron for the role of Tory Party leader / Prime Minister. Cameron’s quote, interactively shared through social media, suggests that he was delighted with the news. He said that he has always wanted his “star players on the pitch”. Whilst this comment is clearly very supportive towards his old friend Boris, we must bear in mind the old adage: keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

If further building his reputation and positioning himself as a potential PM was Boris’s intention when announcing his MP-ship plans, he satisfied his objective.

Of the comments that resulted from the news, many contained expressions of delight at the idea of Boris becoming Prime Minister:

BBC: Corrigenda (6TH AUGUST 2014 - 16:10): Excellent news. This will liven up politics and will much increase interest and further eclipse Milliwatt-Balls.

nj (6TH AUGUST 2014 - 12:36) I would really love to see this MAN as our Prime Minister who speak TRUTH and stand by his words. Who walks with the current times.

Twitter fans also shared their views: Chris Beech ‏@chris1310beech (Aug 6): Yess Boris Johnson says he is going to run for priminister, come on Bojo!!!!

For now we have to wait and see what comes of both the 2015 election and the Uxbridge & South Ruislip seat. What we can do, however, is take stock of the media coverage that Boris achieved this week and keep an eye out for more headline grabbing moves on Boris’s political road to Westminster.



There was a flurry of activity in the Abchurch office this week with two particularly good Market Lunches taking place. Following the successful float of Savannah Petroleum last week, there was lots to talk about at the Natural Resources lunch. The take-home point from the Environmental lunch was that it is down to larger tech companies to bring environmental technologies to the forefront of consumers’ agendas and so solve the current energy crisis.



This week we congratulate Anne-Sophie Girault on her appointment as managing director of EMEA business development at RBC Global Asset Management, having moved from Aviva Investors. Meanwhile, RPC appointed David Gubbay, from Dechert, as a Partner in their corporate team, whilst Stephenson Harwood announced that Ben Stansfield will join as a real estate partner after having worked in the environment and planning group at Clifford Chance.



“Political stunt” - When a politician seeking to influence a politician or governmental policy takes an action they know will gain attention but is not likely to achieve its stated goal.


Prudential RideLondon FreeCycle will take place this Saturday. 10 miles of road in central London will be closed for the occasion, enabling cyclists to pass through the city safely without regular traffic. The route features Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, and many more sites along the way.

For fans of underground opera, Grimeborn Festival of New Opera will take place from 4 August to 7 September, featuring new composers, musicians, and artists. The festival is taking place at Arcola Theatre in Dalston Kingsland.

The 3 Crowns Wine Fair will take place near the Silicon Roundabout. Branded Portuguese, French, and Italian wine will be available at £5 per glass. There will be original folk music performance throughout the event.

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Weekly Wrap Up: The Uber Battle of Trafalgar

For a City famed for constantly being on the go, London was forcefully made to “go slow” this week as nearly 5,000 London cab drivers drew their vehicles to a halt in Trafalgar Square.

The protesters were speaking out against new smart phone app Uber, which allows Londoners to flag the nearest cab available using Geo-tagging, as well as estimate how much their fare will cost.

Whilst the former aspect of the app may be good for cabbies – the method reduces their dependency on commission charging taxi operators. The protesters were complaining that the fare estimation tool forces them to sell their services for less. Their basis for complaint was that, by law, fare calculating devices known as “taximeters” are only allowed to be calculated by black cabs, and that the Uber app could constitute a taximeter by pre-calculating a cab fare.

Unfortunately, the protest didn't have the desired effect of tarring the app’s reputation; Thursday’s papers were filled with stories of how the operators of Uber app had seen an 850% jump in registrations on the day of the protest due to the number of Londoners who discovered the app through the protest. Indeed one Tory minister, Matt Hancock, tweeted that he had never heard about the #Uber app, but that he thought it was “awesome”. The EU digital affairs commissioner Neelie Kros became the app’s champion by lauding the its innovation and the industry of disruptive technology.

This 850% spike was a rather predictable result. Within reason, all PR is good PR, and Uber simply couldn’t have paid for the paper (and even broadcast) space that the protest’s coverage gave them. One might even go so far as to suggest that this whole protest was orchestrated by Uber with the intention of raising their profile internationally and nationally.

Let us go one step further. Beyond the increase in registrations, what long-term impact could the cabbies’ strike have on the world of disruptive apps such as Uber?

Whilst the British population was busy marvelling at the effect of the protest and downloading the offending app, America (homeland of San Francisco based Uber) was allowing the spiders of cynicism to creep onto the internet waves. At 3pm on Thursday afternoon Ellen Huet of Forbes magazine reported that The California Public Utilities Commission has warned apps like Uber in a stern letter that they are no longer allowed to take riders to or from any Californian airport.

This story serves as a reminder that the eye of regulation is upon disruptive technologies such as these, and as such they could face barriers to their development in the future.

The protest may have been beneficial to Uber in the short-term, but the publicity that the protest achieved has now raised the question as to how far apps and disruptive technologies should be able to interfere with other services, and whether regulation should be stepping in to control this interference.

As we have seen from the markets in recent months, the growth of digital technologies such as Twitter and Uber is incredibly dependent on ever increasing user-ship; Twitter’s share price has been falling amid fears of slowing user growth. If regulation does prove to threaten the future take-up of apps such as Uber, it could be hugely damaging for the future reputation of these apps by “potentially thinning profits and making it hard for Uber to justify its valuation” (CBSnews.com).

This week’s protest raised an issue that went beyond the confines of London’s famous black cabs. Although this year’s 'Battle of Trafalgar' may have been won by the defender, in time it may prove to simply be the start of a greater war against technology.



Abchaps have been out and about on an international scale this week, attending the LSE Greater China Forum in Hong Kong, taking the opportunity to catch up with our clients and advisers who operate out there. Abchaps also caught up with London’s top advisers at the LSE Summer Adviser Drinks, wonderfully hosted across the road on Threadneedle Street. Ever with the media in mind, we got the low down from Richard Fletcher, Business Editor at The Times, at the CIPR lunch briefing this week too.

As always, two of the famous Abchurch Market Lunches saw an interesting array of guests sit down to discuss market trends and opportunities; thank you to our guests for your insightful contributions!



This week Michael Hafner has been appointed head of oil and gas, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at UBS. He joins from Deutsche Bank. David Bettesworth, previously of Deloitte, was appointed head of insurance and investment management advisory at PwC in London. Also, Vicki Harris has joined Aldermore from Octopus Investments as group strategy and marketing director.



“Black PR” – The process of destroying the target’s reputation and / or corporate identity.



Make the most of the sun this weekend. The More London Free Festival is in its 12th year and intends to celebrate! There is a 4-day street party which will see 5 different cultures show us the best of their food and fun on the South Bank- give it a try!

If you are a footie fan then you can catch the games at most London pubs, but we’ve heard about a few hidden gems. If you are central, head to Anthologist and if you want to enjoy the sun whilst keeping up to date with the Brazilian antics, then head to The Round House near Charring Cross Tube. Come on England!

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Weekly Wrap Up: Linkedin & the Hungry Internet users of China

On Tuesday, Linkedin launched a simplified Chinese language version of its website and is in the process of getting a license to operate the Chinese language site. If successful, it will mean that Linkedin will be the only global social media website to have official permission to operate in China, whilst most social media sites have been blocked by the Chinese government.

But does this mean that Linkedin will have exclusive access to professional circles in China? This will hardly be the case. Strict censorship rules in the country have not ruled out internet users’ appetite for social networking sites. Instead, the people of China have created their own networks similar to their Western peers, but with more users. Linkedin will be facing strong local competition from similar networking sites such as Ruolin and Dajie. Similarly, the Chinese versions of Facebook and Twitter, Ren Ren and Weibo have had incredible success and have widely penetrated the internet market in the past few years. Internet users in China have become increasingly sophisticated. Like everywhere else in the world, social media is an important platform in forming public opinion in China. At the end of 2012, China had 564 million internet users, representing nearly 40% of the Chinese population.

Internet users in China use "wall-climbing"
software to climb over the Internet fire wall
Image Isawnyu

Despite the fact that popular international social media sites are officially banned by the PRC government, it would be naïve (and possibly even wrong?) to assume that Chinese internet users don't use with them. By spending ten minutes to download what Chinese called the “wall-climbing” software (i.e. climbing over the fire wall), internet users in China will be able to access Facebook as smoothly as their Western counterparts. Whilst Linkedin’s expansion into China may be viewed as a new portal for PR’s to promote in China, it should by no means be viewed as the only site to watch.




This week Abchaps attended some great events, including the CFA UK Research Challenge at Locke Lord’s offices. At this, the investment Olympics for young professionals, the future potential of the City really shone through. Ever keen to learn more about our counterparts in the media, we enjoyed drinks at Bloomberg’s offices and have taken their preferred methods of working on board!

In terms of hosting, the Abchurch fridge has never been so full of healthy food and bubbles. We welcomed a large team from Cenkos Securities, where we discussed not only the fast-growing space of Life Sciences but also the increasingly efficient space of Clean technology. As more and more Companies now seek good team “chemistry” from their advisers, it was a good chance for the teams to mix and swap ideas.

Abchaps also hosted two market lunches, including one with a social media themed and one with an impact investment focuse. It seems that impact investment is rapidly maturing, with investors able to reap more gains from their socially/environmentally responsible investment than ever before.

We also flew over to Boston to join the IPREX GLC conference for the weekend. As an active member of this global network, we look forward to hearing about how our global partners are fairing in what seems to be a much more positive economy.




Private equity firm NVM has recruited Karl Cockwill as a portfolio manager in its investment team. He joins from 3i, where he was a portfolio manager.

Steven Skinner has been appointed head of West End investment at BNP Paribas Real Estate. He joined its central London investment team in January from Savills.




"LION" - A LinkedIn Open Networker - A LinkedIn member with more than 500 connections. These members accept any offer, good or bad and weak or strong; some question the value of this LION status when considering the quality and the quantity of contacts.

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