Four Communications acquires Broadgate Mainland

Following BGF’s £10m investment in independent integrated agency Four Communications Group, the agency has acquired leading financial and professional services public relations agency Broadgate Mainland.

With fees in excess of £2.2 million in 2014, Broadgate Mainland represents national and international brands including BNY Mellon, Baillie Gifford, Durham University Business School, St James’s Place Wealth Management and Woodford Investment Management. Combined fee income is expected to be more than £20 million in 2015.

As part of Four, Broadgate Mainland will be rebranded as Four Broadgate and will focus on the delivery of communications programmes within the specialist areas of financial services, professional services and education.

This acquisition is the first announced by Four since it successfully secured a £10m investment of equity finance from BGF earlier this month. As part of the investment, Four also secured an additional debt facility from HSBC.

Four has experienced rapid growth over the past four years, doubling turnover from £15m in 2010 to over £32m in 2014, a record-breaking year for the agency, and is expected to increase this again by over 20 per cent organically in its current financial year ending December 2015.

As well as its London headquarters, Four also has offices in Edinburgh, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. It employs over 220 staff and has over 600 clients including Etihad Airways, The Man Booker Prizes, Sotheby’s International Realty, InterContinental Hotels Group and American Express. Its key services include public relations, public affairs, marketing, sponsorship, digital & content and media planning & buying with a particular focus on the property, travel, culture, healthcare, financial services and public sectors.

Over the past four years, Four has built a strong track record of acquiring and integrating communications agencies which offer complementary services to the group including bgb in 2011, Colman Getty in 2012, Kinross & Render in 2013 and more recently Consolidated PR in 2014 and MSA Media in May 2015.

The business is now ranked as the UK’s sixth largest independent communications agency according to PR Week and ranked 21st in PRWeek’s Top 150 PR Consultancies report in May 2015.