Bell Pottinger was appointed by Petrofac in May 2005 to provide communications advice and support, both from an internal and external perspective, for its planned IPO in October 2005.

Challenges
Our brief was to provide best practice, strategic communications advice to the Board in support of the IPO. Given the potential for “high earner” stories, the focus of the coverage was to be on the business, its operations and the growth opportunity in the market.

Solution
We implemented a media strategy of keeping a low profile until the public announcement of the intention to IPO. When we launched the media campaign we focused on the market dynamics and growth opportunity for Petrofac. By focusing on the strategic positioning we were able to keep the story about employee windfalls in perspective.

Result: The company successfully floated on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in October 2005 with a market capitalisation of £742 million. The investment messages were clearly understood and communicated through the media, culminating with the investment columns of The Times, Daily Telegraph and The Independent giving Petrofac buy recommendations. This helped to generate a healthy after market that saw the shares increase from 215p to 243p on the first day of dealings.


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