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Partners build muscle in corporate world

John Gardner’s MAGNUS Investor Relations has merged with Sydney peer Citadel to create the country’s biggest independent corporate and financial communications firm.

The deal to form Citadel-MAGNUS, signed this week, creates a new company with annual revenue of about $7 million and a staff of 20.

Mr Gardner said the merger was borne out of the synergies between the two businesses — with MAGNUS bringing a greater depth of investor relations experience and an office in Perth to the table, and Citadel adding more extensive experience “at the highest echelon of corporate transactions in Australia”.

“We could have continued to grow our businesses organically and competitively, and would no doubt have continued to do well, but this was a chance to turbo-boost that process,” Mr Gardner said.

The deal makes MAGNUS the latest independent WA-based investor relations firm to become a major national player through either acquisition or merger.

In 2012, STW Group’s Cannings bought a 49 per cent stake in Purple Communications. Four years earlier, Paul Downie and John McGlue’s Porter Novelli was acquired by Florida-based FTI Consulting.

Citadel-MAGNUS, like both previous companies, is a partner of PROI Worldwide, which provides the merged group with international reach through a network of independent public relations firms.

Martin Debelle, the executive chairman of Citadel-MAGNUS, said the merger also reflected the way the market was evolving.

“The corporate sector is changing, you’ve got start-ups coming through, you’re getting people being wiped out as the resources sector undergoes a very fundamental change, you’re getting the rise of the really big firms who are starting to assert themselves at the moment,” he said.

“You get changing trends in the way that you create value in these kinds of markets and what we’re trying to do is keep on top of it, making sure we’re well placed, flexible and have the capacity and skills to adjust as the market changes and we’re right up there with it.”

Mr Gardner set up MAGNUS in Sydney in 2009 before returning to Perth and setting up a second office in 2011.

MAGNUS’ client base includes CITIC Pacific Mining, Brookfield Rail and mortgage broker Australian Finance Group, which is expected to list on the ASX this year.

Citadel, established in 2008, managed media and investor communications for Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial’s $1 billion takeover bid for Transfield Services and Expedia’s $700 million buyout of Wotif last year.

Combined, Citadel-MAGNUS has carried out communication and media strategy to more than $100 billion worth of corporate transactions.