Hong Kong - Eight(八方联智) is announcing the launch of a specialist financial communications division targeting publicly-listed companies and financial sector clients in Asia and globally. The unit is an off-shoot from its core brand consulting and communications services to CEOs and senior decision-makers. New financial communications and strategy consulting division opens its doors to service global players “We already work with 1 in 7 of the world’s leading investment banks and publicly-listed Fortune 500 clients. It was a natural next step for us to formalise this as a dedicated specialist division,” says Managing Partner Chris Fjelddahl. Concurrently, Eight has divested from a number of low-margin business assets in traditional marketing services to focus on high-margin services and sectors. To cope with the accelerating expansion, the company is actively recruiting to build upon its in-house talent pool. The new unit offers strategy consulting and corporate brand communications programmes: corporate identity, financial reporting, digital communications and advertising. Its tagerting clients include pre-IPO and listed companies, investment banks, fund and asset managers and insurance companies. “Outside the events and press services offered by public relations firms, there is an almost complete vacuum of specialists in financial communications,” says Account Director Jonathan Magee. “Our data visualisation expertise, for example, is a competence in very high demand.”