NEWS: FD gets power at National Grid

National Grid, the electricity transmission company floated last month,

has recruited its first investor relations manager and appointed City PR

agency Financial Dynamics.

FD came out ahead of Dewe Rogerson, Citigate and Cardew in a competitive

pitch to pick up what is described as a ‘substantial’ account by

National Grid director of corporate affairs Peter Gavan.

The agency is fielding a heavyweight team to handle the account,

including its chief executive Nick Miles and former Sunday Times City

editor Jeff Randall.

FD will work closely with Gavan and new IR manager Jill Sherratt. She

joins from Charter where she handled investor relations in her capacity

as public affairs manager. At National Grid she will head an in-house

team of two. The company is also expected to appoint an in-house PR

manager shortly.

Commenting on FD’s role, Gavan said: ‘They’ll be working with us in two

main areas - our relationship with the financial media and secondly, our

relationship with analysts in particular and with the City in general.’

Fees have yet to be agreed but given the high-powered team that FD has

allocated to the business and the scale of the communications task in

hand, these are thought likely to exceed pounds 100,000.

‘Some of the shareholders in the Grid were given their shares by the

regional electricity companies and there’s at least a suspicion that

some of them could know more about the Grid,’ said Miles.

The appointment is a considerable boost for Financial Dynamics and

suggests that the agency’s reputation has not been badly dented by

recent press reports linking it to a Stock Exchange inquiry concerning

its client MB Caradon.