Cognetas retains Corfin to oversee BWG sell-off

David Quainton 12-Oct-06

Corfin Communications is handling the sale of Spar convenience stores operator BWG as its parent, Cognetas, looks to offload the company.

Cognetas, formerly Electra Partners Europe, is a mid-market private equity firm with around £1.3bn worth of funds.

It is looking to offload BWG for around £265m after buying the operation from Pernod Ricard in 2002.

Corfin aided Cognetas around its name change in the summer but has now been retained after a three-way pitch against Hogarth and Millbrook Partnership. Cognetas coincided the change with a new office opening in Italy in June, feeling that Cognetas better represented its ‘independence'.

Corfin's contract is unveiled in the week the City PR minnow has managed to lure Brunswick partner William Cullum.

Cullum joins as director, teaming up with former Brunswick colleague Harry Chathli, who co-founded Corfin two years ago.

Cullum advised HMV, Dairy Crest and Corus at Brunswick following a stint as an investment analyst at BNP Paribas. Prior to that he was a stockbroker at de Zoete & Bevan.

The creation of his board role follows Corfin's hire of Financial Times digital business editor Ben Hunt to the same post last year (PRWeek, 24 November 2005).

On the BWG business, Corfin replaces Finsbury, which has been bolstered by the news that Guy Lamming has joined as a partner.

The former Lehman Brothers and Cazenove media analyst will focus on expanding the agency's media sector business, working for clients such as BSkyB.