Unlike
last quarter the first table, which places financial
PR advisers according to their numbers of stock market
clients, shows little change. The first six places are
the same as they were in February; Buchanan Communications
at the top and Financial Dynamics at number two both
show a significant lead over the rest of the field,
although Buchanan is slightly down in client numbers
at 117 (123 last time) while Financial Dynamics has
gained a client and now has 116. Weber / Shandwick Square
Mile coming in at number three is quite a way behind
with 89 clients, a fall from 103 in February. Lansons
Communications, just pipped by Citigate Dewe Rogerson
into seventh place last quarter, now achieves a tie
with that firm in sixth place, with 61 clients apiece.
Binns & Co Public Relations Ltd has dropped back
two places from eighth to tie in tenth place with Tavistock,
each with 38 clients.
'Size' table number two places the firms according to
the aggregate pre-tax profits of their clients, and
again, the rankings are not greatly dissimilar but the
actual figures in the first five show a marked decline.
Brunswick remains in the lead, but with a figure of
£9,187.2m as against £10,015.3m in February;
Financial Dynamics is still second, with a figure of
£6,767.6m (£7,507.3m last quarter). The last
three firms, College Hill Associates, Citigate Dewe
Rogerson and Tavistock Communications Ltd, all have
negative figures though of markedly different sizes:
-£41.9m, -£567.1m and -£13,129.1m respectively.
The first 'growth' table is concerned with the average
increase in client's pre-tax profits. Lansons retains
its lead and is again, as in February, the only one
with a positive figure although this has slumped from
5.8% last quarter to 1.8% this time. The rest of the
league, sadly, can only show negative figures, ranging
down from Weber Shandwick / Square Mile in second
place with -5.5% to Bankside Consultants Ltd, number
eleven, at -31.5%. Citigate Dewe Rogerson has risen
from its previous spot at number eleven to number
eight; Brunswick has fallen two places from eighth
to tenth.
Figurative
red ink disfigures the majority of the last table,
the second 'growth' list, although there has been
a little more movement here in the rankings. Buchanan
Communications has climbed from seventh place last
time in the list which is based on average increases
in clients' earnings per share, to pole position with
a figure turned from red (-6.2%) to black (2.3%).
Lansons has dropped back from the lead last time to
second this quarter, also with a positive figure,
but this time of only 1.2% compared with 5.0% previously.
Financial Dynamics has gone up from eighth to fifth
place, while Tavistock Communications is down from
fifth to ninth. Negative figures range from Hudson
Sandler's clients at -1.6% to those of Bankside Consultants
Ltd at -17.8%.
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