National HSBC drops Bell Pottinger after PR body expels the disgraced firm HSBC says it will no longer work with Bell Pottinger, the latest company to ditch it after Investec, Acacia and Richemont also did so recently. BL PREMIUM

London — Public relations agency Bell Pottinger has lost global banking giant HSBC as a client, after it was thrown out of its British industry association on Tuesday over a campaign judged to have deliberately stoked racial tension in SA. HSBC said it would no longer work with the firm following the news that it had been expelled from the UK’s Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA). Investment bank Investec, mining company Acacia, luxury goods firm Richemont and smaller UK bank CYBG have also dropped their Bell Pottinger accounts recently. The trade association, which represents 400 businesses and 20,000 individuals, found that Bell Pottinger had backed a campaign that played on frayed race relations in support of President Jacob Zuma and the ANC. "The view of the PRCA board was that Bell Pottinger’s actions were deliberately intended to create exactly the result they did — stirring up racial hatred in a very sensitive area of the world," Francis Ingham, PRCA direct...