A company listed on a stock exchange thousands of miles from Capitol Hill has quietly taken the lead on K Street, with more lobbying revenue than even the biggest traditional advocacy operation.
Shares of Public Policy Holding Co. trade on a unit of the London Stock Exchange. It’s the parent of multiple companies, including DC lobbying shops that represent
Added together, units of PPHC had 2023 lobbying revenue topping $69 million, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis of federal disclosure data. That exceeded the $62.7 million of law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, which was the largest single revenue-generator on Washington’s influence scene last year.
PPHC is working to expand to other US markets and to provide services such as social media-driven messaging and advocacy in state and international capitals, CEO Stewart Hall said in a phone interview.
“The Beltway is no longer the center of the universe,” Hall said. “I would say there’s nothing close to what we’ve created and what we’re going to build.”
PPHC is listed on the Alternative Investment Market for smaller enterprises. Its federal lobbying units are Crossroads Strategies LLC Forbes Tate Partners, and the Alpine Group Inc..
O’Neill and Associates, a Boston outfit that also does some federal lobbying, is another subsidiary.
Hall started Crossroads Strategies in 2010, five years after the sale of his previous shop, the Federalist Group, to the public relations firm Ogilvy. Former Sens. John Breaux (D-La.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) are among the lobbyists at Crossroads.
The holding company last year acquired MultiState Associates, a state and local lobbying company, and also includes under its umbrella public relations and messaging firms and Sacramento-based KP Public Affairs.
Looking beyond lobbying to all kinds of revenue, the PPHC firms last year brought in $135 million, which was a 24.1% increase over the previous year, the holding company said in the unaudited preliminary results it reported to the London Stock Exchange.
Beyond Washington
Mat Lapinski, CEO of Crossroads Strategies, said the PPHC arrangement is one that’s “not been tried in the public policy world.”
Deals with private equity firms or acquisitions by advertising conglomerates tried by other shops tended to lack the financial incentives to keep founding teams in place post-payout and didn’t provide a way to reward those who came later, said Lapinski, who sits on the management committee of PPHC.
The firms that are part of PPHC maintain their own brands and separate office space, and share some business and human resources functions, such as health insurance.
Access to a chief financial officer and an HR team made the marriage appealing, said Joe Crosby, CEO of Arlington, Va.-based MultiState, which focuses on connecting clients with lobbyists in state capitals.
“The first and most important thing was that the acquisition was not going to result in any day-to-day changes to our operations,” he said during a phone interview. “Almost exactly a year later, that has proved true.”
BGR Group, another big player in federal lobbying, recently joined with other firms in a holding company, called Advocus Partners. Its executives said they don’t have plans to go public.
Capital Access
Forbes Tate Partners founder Jeff Forbes said the holding company provided capital to help acquire a digital media agency, Engage, and to make hires. The firm’s clients include General Atomics, the drug industry’s main lobby, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, and
Keenan Austin Reed, a lobbyist at Alpine Group and an executive director on PPHC’s board, said the holding company structure was part of what sold her on the job in 2021.
“When you think about the ability to be able to have stock and ownership in a company, that’s pretty unique and special,” said Reed, a former chief of staff for the late Rep. Don McEachin (D-Va.). Alpine is registered for such clients as the
The link to the other firms, including those that specialize in communications or messaging campaigns, also is an advantage, according to Reed.
“We’re able to draw upon a sister company for those resources and that makes us more full-service,” she said.
Stock Struggles
While going through that growth spurt, PPHC also weathered some losses of personnel and equity value.
Former Alpine Group principal Mike Henry left the group and started his own firm last year, called Acorn Consulting.
And over the course of 2023, shares of PPHC commanded less than they did the year before.
Its stock price peak of £148.50 was recorded in 2022. PPHC traded at £110 on March 20, 2024, compared with £137.50 on the same date in 2023, according to Bloomberg data.
“We faced, and continue to face, multiple government shutdown threats, an ousted House speakership” and a historically unproductive Congress, the company said in its preliminary financial results.
The stock price is largely a reflection of the London markets, said Thomas Gensemer, PPHC’s chief strategy officer. “We’ve hit all of our growth forecasts for the first two years on AIM, but there’s a liquidity challenge overall,” Gensemer said.
Reed said she and others are taking a long view.
“We’re still in our early days,” she said. “We really believe in what we’re building.”
The future, Hall said, could include a stock listing on a US market.
“We don’t view London as a terminal place for us in terms of our listing,” he said. “Our company is over 350 employees. At some point, we may need to look at where we best domicile for our listing for maximum amount of value and growth for the company.”
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