Deals
Bell Pottinger Seeks Buyer as Clients Flee PR Firm in Crisis
- BDO hired to weigh options amid furor over S. Africa campaign
- Chairman Sunnocks departs; investor Chime returns 27% stake
Bell Pottinger employs more than 240 people in offices dotting the globe, in locations including Bahrain, Kuala Lumpur, pictured and Yangon, Myanmar.
Photographer: Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Bell Pottinger LLP has put itself up for sale after being expelled from the U.K.’s public-relations industry body and losing clients over a racially divisive social-media campaign in South Africa.
The London-based PR firm, founded by Margaret Thatcher’s media consultant, has hired financial adviser BDO “to look at all options regarding the future of the business,” it said in a statement late Tuesday. Chairman John Sunnucks has left the firm, the company said Wednesday, while a person familiar with the situation said David Rydell, another senior executive, had also departed.