City & Corporate: Pernod Ricard win takes Finsbury to top position

Despite having worked on just 12 deals in July, compared with FD's 30 in June, Finsbury's chunkier projects gave it the same total deal value, at £11.7bn.

The agency worked for Pernod Ricard on its £7.4bn bid for Allied Domecq, which closed last month, and was boosted by British Land's acquisition of Pillar Property for £811m.

The Allied Domecq deal also saw Cardew Group and College Hill Associates make it into the top ten. The former agency, which came fifth, is retained adviser to Allied Domecq, while the latter counselled Pernod Ricard buyout vehicle Goal Acquisitions.

Citigate Dewe Rogerson held on to second place, having advised Yell Group on its £910m acquisition of phonebook rival TransWestern Holdings. New table entries included Gainsborough Communications, which came eighth after working with Doughty Hanson on the VC firm's sale of Priory Group to ABN Amro.

Meanwhile, M: Communications, which did not work on any of July's top 20 deals by value, came in at tenth.

The table's only other climber was The Maitland Consultancy, which moved from seventh place in June to sixth. Last month Maitland and Brunswick - which fell from third to fourth place - advised global brewing giant SABMiller on its £4.4bn purchase of Grupo Empresarial Bavaria SA.

The month's biggest faller was FD, which slipped from first place after only managing less than half of the total deal value it had worked on in June.

But the agency still managed seventh position, its largest deal being T&F Informa's £768m acquisition of IIR Holdings.

DEAL WATCH - JULY 2005 RANKING Ranking Financial PR Company No of Deal Value Deals pounds m 1 Finsbury 12 11,713 2 Citigate Dewe Rogerson 10 9,247 3 College Hill Associates 18 8,466 4 Brunswick Group 21 7,795 5 Cardew Group 5 7,411 6 The Maitland Consultancy 11 5,017 7 Financial Dynamics 31 4,968 8 Gainsborough Communications 3 2,254 9 Gavin Anderson 3 929 10 M: Communications 3 750 Source: ZEPHYR published by Bureau van Dijk