Pendragon beats three to BarclayTrust account

BarclayTrust, the banking giant’s newly-created retail stockbroking

and fund management arm, has hired Luther Pendragon as its first public

relations consultancy.

Formed last January, BarclayTrust incorporates Barclay Stockbrokers and

Barclays Bank Trust Company. Both firms offer retail investment

services.

In October a new board, headed by chief executive Ronald Gould and

deputy chief executive Jane Platt, took over the running of BarclayTrust

and the company is looking to boost its overall market profile.

Hired following a four-way pitch in December against Dewe Rogerson,

Brunswick and Lansons, Luther Pendragon will advise the management board

on how to build BarclayTrust’s presence among retail investors and other

potential clients. Luther Pendragon chief executive George Pitcher

claimed that the objective was for the company to ’become the middle

class Merrill Lynch’.

The account team, led by Pitcher, will also work closely with Justin

Urquhart Stewart, Barclay Stockbrokers’ business development director,

who will act as company spokesman and continue his existing relationship

with the media.

Jane Platt, who was previously chief operating officer at BZW Asset

Management, said that Luther Pendragon would begin working in earnest at

the end of January after contractual details had been hammered out.

’They have some interesting ideas about how to raise the profile of the

company, which is what it’s all about,’ she said.