PR Week Echo Columns

Which PR company would want to advise the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) at the moment? Following the high profile resignation last week of its "defensive, uninformative and politically tone deaf" Chief Executive Peter Linthwaite (The Times, 14/6) after a Treasury Select Committee mauling, the private equity sector went into meltdown, issuing contradictory messages and abandoning ship to the CBI. Political and media criticism centred on the sector's perceived unfair tax breaks, its treatment of employees / pensioners, and individuals' reluctance to confirm their UK tax status. Headlines such as "Private equity is its own worst enemy" (Sunday Telegraph, 17/6), "Buyout lobby boss resigns after revolt by members" (Guardian, 15/6), "Departure leaves BCVA in more disarray" (Daily Telegraph, 15/6) revealed the PR chaos experienced by the City's wealthiest financiers.

In anticipation of a further "bloodbath" (FT, 18/6) in front of the Treasury Select Committee this week, the weekend brought a rearguard PR movement, with some private equity players ready to concede their tax breaks in a "Damascene conversion" (Observer, 17/6). Whether this U-turn will be enough to save the private equity sector from Gordon Brown is anyone's guess. What is clear is that as well as needing a new Chief Executive, the BVCA has a massive PR rehabilitation programme ahead of it. Any takers?