The Bell is ringing but nobody is answering the distress call

Comment Martin Flanagan

The Bell Pottinger death spiral gathers apace. The City PR consultancy’s Asian business is jumping the sinking ship and rebranding as it severs ties with its UK parent firm. For the latter, administration looms: from lobbying to foundering virtually overnight. The Singapore-headquartered unit is to change its name to Klareco Communications and relaunch under a new ownership structure. It follows the claims that Bell Pottinger, at one time PR point man under co-founder Lord (Tim) Bell for Margaret Thatcher, ran a “racially divisive” campaign in South Africa.

This has led to its second biggest shareholder walking away from the firm and several clients ditching it.

In an e-mailed memo to clients, the Asian arm said: “Our team in Asia is and always has been a separate legal entity from Bell Pottinger in the UK.

“While the UK business is expected to go into administration as early as next week, the Asia business is entirely ringfenced and solvent. Our teams are intact, we continue to serve our clients and it is entirely business as usual.”

In short, people are voting with their feet. It remains to be seen whether administrators can salvage even a much retrenched and chastened UK operation for new owners, but the the brand is now so tarnished it can only be touch-and-go.

Industry sources believe that some senior executives at the UK arm may be poached while on the ropes in timehonoured tradition by rival City PR agencies.

It’s been a messy business, and unfortunately for Bell Pottinger it’s all been on the record.