Members of:

Augusta & Co.

Background

Augusta & Co. (www.augustaco.com) is an independent merchant bank with offices in London and Frankfurt. Its principal focus is providing corporate finance advice to European mid market companies and helping them gain access to capital sources in the London market.

As an early stage business, a principal challenge for Augusta was to develop an industry profile to help attract corporate clients, strengthen its relationships with institutional investors and support the recruitment and retention of quality staff.

Response

Typically, a merchant bank is able to build its profile on the back of newsworthy transactions on which it has advised. However, since the majority of Augusta’s deals were outside the UK this option was not readily available.

Instead, we developed an issues‐based media campaign that positioned Augusta as an expert commentator on one of the hottest mid cap markets in Europe, Germany’s Mittelstand, and one of the most topical financing techniques, mezzanine finance. We targeted relevant special reports in Augusta’s key UK publications and prepared insightful, tailored comments and soundbites, providing journalists with valuable material for their articles.

In addition, we actively monitored external developments in industrial sectors and asset classes of interest to Augusta and acted quickly to create additional opportunities for comment and media exposure.

Results

Despite Augusta’s limited UK news flow, we succeeded in having the company quoted extensively in the UK’s leading financial media. Highlights included:

Nine articles in the Financial Times over a 12 month period, including a transaction case study and a Lex column item
Two articles in Financial News, including an illustrated feature on Augusta’s view on trends in mezzanine finance
Prominent articles in Acquisitions Monthly, Real Deals and European Venture Capital Journal
Interviews with key media relevant to Augusta’s activities in the renewable energy sector, including New Energy Finance

Client Verdict

“80:20 quickly gained an understanding of our business and demonstrated great energy and resourcefulness in creating valuable media opportunities for us. They are conscious of the strategic role of public relations and were able to make an important contribution to our development ”
James Macmillan-Scott, senior partner

Augusta & Co