Charles Barker sold to managers

CHARLES BARKER, the world's oldest public relations firm, went into receivership yesterday and was immediately sold to its management, leaving creditors fuming, writes Jason Nisse.

Adrian Stanway and Christopher Hughes, partners at the accountancy firm Cork Gully, were appointed receivers to both Barker and its parent company, Corporate Communications, which collapsed owing pounds 10m. But the business of the two groups immediately re-emerged in two management buyouts, backed by the group's main creditor, Bank of Scotland, and USF&G, the American insurance group that was a large shareholder in Corporate Communications.

Tony Canning, chairman of Corporate Communications, is leading a buyout of the financial and investor relations side, under the name Georgeson International.

Angela Heylin, head of the public relations side, is leading a buyout of the corporate, marketing and public affairs operations, which will retain the name Charles Barker.

The new companies have written to clients saying it is business as usual. However, suppliers to Charles Barker, which are estimated to have lost around pounds 500,000 in the collapse, were livid yesterday.

One leading supplier said he was organising a group of suppliers who would protest at the creditors' meetings for Charles Barker and Corporate Communications. 'They'd dropped all their creditors and started again without them,' he said.