Investor Relations - A Practical Guide - Investis

Preparation
It is important that the management are well
prepared before any of these meetings, and know
what the investor, analyst or journalist is looking
for. The best way to do this is to understand what
other investments an institution holds, or what
topics and companies the journalist or analyst has
recently written on. Your broker should be able to
brief you on what the investors you are meeting
are looking for in terms of returns, and also their
preferences towards timing and size of
investments. You should also learn how
knowledgeable they are about your sector to
identify whether you need to explain the
technology or operations in simple terms, or
whether they have a stronger understanding of the
competitive landscape. Corporate brokers will be able
to give you this information on each investor you
are meeting, as they hold the relationships directly.
Given that most of the meetings that are arranged
by your advisers will be on a tight time scale, often
lasting for an hour or less, it is crucial to be
succinct and well prepared in order to make the
most of the time that you have with people. The
company’s presentation should last no longer than
40 minutes, to enable time for questions.
Conclusion
The meetings that you have throughout the year
are an opportunity to demonstrate the company’s
progress and to keep investors updated and
informed. They are also a way to attract new
investors and the support of the press and analyst
community. It is critical to leverage all of these
opportunities to their full effect, and to remain
transparent and consistent in all communications.
All directors need to be consistent in their
responses, particularly to any tricky questions. It is
important to have agreed responses and good
corporate material, key messages, to rely on and
refer to during meetings. This will give a high
degree of consistency to the messages that are
conveyed during each meeting. The management
team also need to be prepared to answer
questions on the directors and their backgrounds,
as well as threats to the business, barriers to entry
and competitors.
Building the Investor Relations Programme 51