Fleishman-Hillard, the international public relations firm, has increased its shareholding in Fleishman-Hillard Saunders (F-HS) from 41 per cent to 100 per cent at an estimated cost of £6 million (#7.6 million).
F-HS managing director, Mr John Saunders, is the largest beneficiary of the sale. The firm declined to disclose the terms of the deal but industry sources say Mr Saunders held around 25 per cent of the company and stands to receive £2.5 million (#3.17 million) from the sale.
The other shareholders to benefit include directors Ms Rhona Blake, Mr Julian Davis, Mr Michael Parker, Mr John McGoldrick and Ms Suzanne Weldon and Mr Saunders' wife, Jean, who worked for the company in the past.
Payments will be made over three to five years and will be contingent on certain targets being met, sources said. The company will continue to trade as F-HS and will operate under existing management.
Fleishman-Hillard first took an equity stake in F-HS when it was founded in 1990. The firm now employs 50 in offices in Dublin and Belfast and numbers AIB, Budweiser and Musgraves among its clients.
F-HS also announced that three senior executives, Ms Rhona Carroll, Mr Paul McSharry and Mr James Morrissey would join the board of the company.
F-HS is the third of the Republic's leading PR firms to be sold in the last year. Ms Eileen Gleeson, special adviser to President Mary McAleese, sold her company FCC to Shandwick for a figure believed to be in excess of £3 million last July.
In October, Drury Communications was sold to the international advertising and marketing group BBDO Worldwide, for an estimated £6.5 million.
