Financial and corporate agency Ludgate Communications set up shop in
Hong Kong this week.
Ludgate Asia, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ludgate Group, was formed
by a breakaway team from The Rowland Company’s Hong Kong operation.
The venture has already spawned business for Ludgate in the UK; on
Wednesday the financial PR account for the Jardine Matheson Group - a
client of Ludgate Asia, moved from Dewe Rogerson to Ludgate.
Ludgate’s Hong Kong agency is headed by Martin Spurrier, previously
chief executive of Rowland Hong Kong. It has 12 consultants - all from
Rowland - and in the short term will continue to share the same building
and support staff with Rowland.
Tim Trotter, chief executive of Ludgate Group and chairman of the new
agency, said fee income for the year would be around pounds 1.2 million.
In return for handing Ludgate a ‘ready-made’ agency, Spurrier gets
shares in the Ludgate Group and a seat on its board.
Clients of the agency include five public companies within the Jardine
Matheson Group, Marks and Spencer and P&O.
Explaining his decision to leave Rowland, Spurrier said: ‘Increasingly
I wanted to focus on corporate and financial business - something on
which Rowland hasn’t concentrated. ‘I was looking for a partner who was
young and growing with offices in London and New York and without an
office in Hong Kong.’
While Spurrier had no previous links with Ludgate, he has worked with
its UK chief executive David Simpson who handled the Jardine Matheson
business when he was at Dewe Rogerson.
Simpson joined Ludgate earlier this year.
