Bell Pottinger will rebrand its Asian offices, including its Myanmar office, as Klareco Communications after separating from its parent in the UK

The Asian offices of public relations (PR) firm Bell Pottinger, including its Myanmar office, will be rebranded as Klareco Communications after separating from its parent in the UK, said Ang Shih-Huei, Bell Potinger Asia’s CEO, in a September 8 statement to clients.

Bell Potinger’s UK business is expected to go into administration this week, after it was expelled from the UK PR trade body on September 4 on accusations of stirring up racial hatred under a contract in South Africa. The firm will be expelled for at least five years. It was the first time that the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) had ejected a PR firm as prominent as Bell Pottinger.

“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 [this] 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,” Ms Ang said.

Known especially for its financial communications and public affairs work Bell Pottinger has been inMyanmar since opening its office in Yangon in June 2014. It also has a presence in Singapore, Hong Kong and Kula Lumpur, Malaysia.

The accusations relate to Bell Pottinger’s relationship with Oakbay Capital, a South African company controlled by India’s prominent Gupta family. The Guptas had been accused of exerting undue influence over South African President Jacob Zuma.

The PR firm's work on a campaign for Oakbay Capital, had "incited racial hatred" and was "absolutely unthinkable", PRCA director-general Francis Ingham was quoted by the BBC as saying.

The PRCA launched an investigation into Bell Pottinger following a complaint from South Africa’s main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, accusing the PR company of working to “divide and conquer the South African public by exploiting racial tensions in a bid to keep Jacob Zuma and his African National Congress party in power”.

The fallout has since led to the resignation of Group CEO James Henderson and a rapid loss of business that has since led to the collapse of the firm’s operations in the UK, where it is famed for advising presidents and prime ministers including Margaret Thatcher and F.W. de Klerk.

It also comes as at a time when the nascent PR industry in Myanmar is only just starting to develop and expand. Commenting on the formal separation between Bell Pottinger’s current UK and Asian offices, Graham Stewart, Managing Director for Klareco Communications in Yangon, said that clients in Myanmar remained understanding and supportive. “They know that nobody in Bell Pottinger’s Asia offices had any involvement whatsoever in the rightly criticised South African campaign,” he said.

(The Myanmar Times: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/bell-potinger-rebrands-klareco-communications-after-uk-parents-collapse.html )

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