RAB Capital - Communications Programme

RAB Capital is one of the most successful ‘absolute return’ investment management companies in the world. It was one of the first hedge fund managers to publicly list its own shares and was also a pioneer amongst the alternative investment community in raising ‘permanent capital’ - by listing shares in an AIM investment company established to feed its flagship Special Situations hedge fund.

Whilst it is a major investment management group, it is a relatively small company in terms of market capitalisation. What was needed was a communications programme appropriate to the level of interest in the business. A challenge, however, is the fact that many of the key management personnel at RAB are also its most important fund managers and marketeers – for whom time committed to media and PR activity is time taken away from other demands on their time.

When RAB Capital appointed Tulchan to be its retained PR adviser at the end of 2005, it had a number of communications requirements, mainly driven by the significant growth and performance the group was achieving and the personalities behind that performance.

We were able to work with RAB’s management and in-house team to develop the investment case for the business and to act as advocates on the company’s behalf with many of the key commentators and analysts. Our deep understanding of the industry in which RAB operates, together with our knowledge of the company enabled us to speak with authority on the company’s behalf.

We also undertook a series of targeted background briefings for senior RAB personnel with a number of senior commentators. The purpose of these generally was to inform the debate about the role of alternative investments in the capital markets and to position RAB as a leader in this industry.