Financial Dynamics is acting as PR adviser to both sides of an agreed
bid after being hired by both Central and South West Corporation and
Seeboard last Friday.
FD chief executive, Nick Miles said the highly unusual arrangement was
prompted by the need for secrecy. Regional electricity board Seeboard
had agreed to accept US bidder Central and South West Corporation’s
pounds 1.6 billion offer, but it was feared other suitors were in the
wings. ‘They hired us to keep the deal under wraps,’ he said.
The agency is reporting directly to Jeremy Miller, the former director
of Gavin Anderson who was seconded to work for Seeboard last month (PR
Week, 27 October).
Miles declined to give details of the fee, but said: ‘You can assume
it’s in six figures. There’ll also hopefully be a success element.’
C&SW appointed Burson-Marsteller in September to advise it on a joint
bid for another electricity board, Norweb, along with Brunswick client
Houston Industries. That bid failed when North West Water raised its own
bid for the company, and B-M is not involved in the Seeboard bid.
The agency faces a potentially irreconcilable conflict of interest
should a rival bidder emerge. In such a situation, said Miles, ‘we have
an understanding with both sides.’
