Carbon International gains fund-raising approval
London, 3 April: UK communications firm Carbon International has been given the green-light to raise funds for its clients, and has completed its first fund-raising.

The company, which specialises in investor relations and public relations for the environmental technology sector, has raised $10 million for Wellington Drive Technologies, a New Zealand-listed energy-efficient motor manufacturer, following authorisation from the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

“All of our clients are in a permanent state of fund-raising,” said chief executive Tom Whitehouse. “This is a logical extension of the communications work we’ve been doing.”

The company’s authorisation is limited, Whitehouse stressed. For example, the company is not permitted to carry out mergers and acquisition work, and will not take companies public. However, it will help companies to meet professional investors, typically charging around 2% commission on money raised, Whitehouse said.

“We don’t want to become a corporate finance house or a broker,” he added. “When our clients need either a corporate finance advisor or a broker, we will seek to introduce them.”

The company is currently seeking investment for a Spanish renewable energy fund and two UK renewable energy companies.

Other financial PR companies are likely to follow Carbon International’s route, said Whitehouse. Jonathan Herbst, a partner at law firm Norton Rose, which advised the company, said: “The implications of the UK financial services regulatory regime are that investor relations companies need to be FSA authorised or to sit under the umbrella of another firm’s FSA authorisation. Carbon International is among the first communications companies to be authorised. I doubt it will be the last.”

Charles Millar, director of investor communications at Carbon International, said: “Diversifying from media relations into fund-raising makes sense for us. If you understand environmental technologies and services and can make them interesting to journalists, you can do the same for professional investors. Investors obviously focus more on a company’s financial details than journalists, but both groups need to see the business case and understand how the company solves environmental problems.”