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| Industry | Consultancy |
|---|---|
| Predecessors | Finsbury, Hering Schuppener, The Glover Park Group, Sard Verbinnen & Co |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Alexander Geiser (CEO) |
| Parent | WPP plc (57.4%) [1] |
| Website | fgsglobal |
FGS Global is a strategic advisory and communications consultancy formed in 2021 by the merger of Finsbury Glover Hering and Sard Verbinnen & Co. It is a subsidiary of British advertising and media conglomerate WPP plc.
Finsbury was founded by Roland Rudd in 1994 as Finsbury. [2] In 2001, the firm was sold to WPP in a deal that the Financial Times estimated earned Rudd £40 million. [3] [4] Rudd remained chairman of the company. [3]
In 2011, Finsbury [2] merged with Robinson Lerer & Montgomery of New York to form RLM Finsbury. [5] [6] Rudd continued as chairman and Walter G. Montgomery became chief executive officer of the enlarged firm. Montgomery retired as chief executive officer in 2014, but remained a partner in the firm. [7] Montgomery was replaced by Michael Gross until 2017 when he transitioned to Vice-Chair and Paul Homes was announced as CEO. [7] [8]
In 2012, The Times reported that Alisher Usmanov, a Russian billionaire who was about to launch one of the largest stock market listings in London for his MegaFon mobile phone company, hired RLM Finsbury which "covertly cleaned up his online image and removed details of his past" before the offering. [9] The Telegraph reported that RLM Finsbury staff anonymously "deleted details of a Soviet-era criminal conviction and freedom of speech row" and then "replaced those sections with text outlining Mr Usmanov's philanthropy and art collection." [10] According to O'Dwyer's PR, the firm publicly apologised in The Times, giving the following statement: "This was not done in the proper manner nor was this approach authorized by Mr. Usmanov. We apologize for this and it will not happen again." [11]
In 2014, RLM Finsbury rebranded to Finsbury which the firm felt would underline its global ambitions. [12]
In 2020, Finsbury developed "Finsbury's Workforce Return", a service that guided businesses in managing employees returning to the workplace after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. [13]
In January 2021, Finsbury, The Glover Park Group (GPG), and Hering Schuppener completed their merger and management buy-in of 49.99%, and became known as Finsbury Glover Hering. [14] At that stage, the company had 18 offices and almost 700 consultants worldwide. WPP remained a 50.01% investor. [15] [16] Following the merger, Rudd and Carter Eskew, founder of GPG, served as co-chairs of the new firm, and Alexander Geiser, managing partner at Hering Schuppener, served as CEO. [15] [17] As of October 2021, the business was worth $917 million. [1]
In December 2021, Finsbury Glover Hering and Sard Verbinnen & Co. merged and rebranded as FGS Global, with Geiser appointed as CEO. [18] [19] The agency then had 25 offices in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and over 1,000 employees. [15] In October 2022, FGS Global opened its eighth office in Europe. [20] Also in 2022, the firm ranked number one in terms of the volume and the value of mergers and acquisitions deals. [21] In January 2023, FGS Global led communication consulting in operations in Spain. [22]
In April 2023, US private equity investor KKR was reported to be in talks to buy a stake in FGS Global. [23] On April 11, it was confirmed that KKR had agreed to buy a 30% stake in FGS Global that valued the company at about $1.4 billion. As part of the deal, existing investor Golden State Capital will sell its entire stake to KKR. [24] [25]
As of 2023, WPP owned 57.4% of FGS Global. Golden Gate Capital owned 40% of Sard Verbinnen & Co., and holds a small stake in FGS Global following the merger. About 40% of the company's employees are shareholders, of which 25.9% were FGH employees. [1]
The Glover Park Group was founded in June 2001 by former White House and Democratic campaign officials Michael Feldman, Carter Eskew, Joe Lockhart and Chip Smith. [26] [27] Based in Washington, D.C., the consultancy assisted companies with their legislative goals using television advertising and public relations. [28] In November 2011, Glover Park was acquired by WPP. At the time, the firm had $60 million in annual revenue. [26] [29]
Sard Verbinnen & Co. was founded in 1992 by George Sard and Paul Verbinnen. The firm managed deals, investor relations, and crises. As of 2021, the company had more than 200 employees. [30]
Hering Schuppener was founded in 1995 by Ralf Hering and Bernd Schuppener and headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. [31] [32] The firm assisted with capital market communication including acquisitions, mergers, and restructuring, and advised clients on crisis public relations, reputation issues, and political communication. [33] [34]
KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strategic partners, hedge funds. As of December 31, 2023, the firm had completed more than 730 private equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $710 billion of total enterprise value. As of December 31, 2023, assets under management (AUM) and fee paying assets under management (FPAUM) were $553 billion and $446 billion, respectively.
WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It is the world's largest advertising company, as of 2023. WPP plc owns many companies, which include advertising, public relations, media, and market research networks such as AKQA, BCW, CMI Media Group, Essence Global, Finsbury, Grey, Hill & Knowlton, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wavemaker, and VML. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside Publicis, The Interpublic Group of Companies, and Omnicom Group. WPP has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
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Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of March 2024, the firm had raised and advised funds of approximately $77 billion (USD). Apax Partners is one of the oldest and largest private equity firms operating on an international basis.
Publicis Groupe is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. One of the oldest and largest marketing and communications companies in the world, it is headquartered in Paris.
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Alisher Burkhanovich Usmanov is an Uzbek–Russian businessman and investor. By 2023, Usmanov had an estimated net worth of $14.5 billion and was among the world's 100 wealthiest people.
Amber Augusta Rudd is a British former politician who served as Home Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2018 to 2019. She was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Hastings and Rye, first elected in 2010, representing the Conservative Party, and stood down from parliament in 2019. She identifies herself as a one-nation conservative, and has been associated with both socially liberal and economically liberal policies.
The Glover Park Group was an American communications consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. The company was founded in 2001 by former White House and Democratic campaign officials Carter Eskew, Michael Feldman, Joe Lockhart and Chip Smith. In January 2021, the firm merged with Finsbury and Hering Schuppener to form Finsbury Glover Hering, which itself later merged in December 2021 with New York City-based Sard Verbinnen & Co to form FGS Global.
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Roland Dacre Rudd is the founder and chairman of Finsbury, a public relations firm. Rudd was educated at Oxford University, becoming President of the Oxford Union before starting a career in journalism that he left to found Finsbury. He sold that company to WPP plc in 2001, making an estimated £40 million.
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