Investor Relations - A Practical Guide - Investis

Distribution
Despite the change in legislation noted earlier, the
vast majority of companies continue to post out
their printed reports to all shareholders.
Increasingly, however, some audiences prefer
online formats to the print option and Large-Cap
companies, in particular, are trying to respond to
that demand. Typically, many companies moving
towards the online communication approach have
found that an average of 20 per cent of
shareholders still want to receive their materials in
printed format.
The UK market has seen Larger-Cap companies
with large shareholder bases eagerly embracing
the possibility of communicating with their
shareholders online. After all, it offers the
possibility of drastically reducing print runs and
mailing costs and therefore brings significant cost
savings. Companies with more average sized
shareholder registers – for example, 10,000
shareholders or less – have been more cautious
about the move due to the lack of such immediate
cost-savings. Each company should weigh up the
needs of its audiences and the way in which they
communicate with their shareholders before
determining their own approach.
In recent years a range of online formats have
emerged to satisfy these trends. Virtually all
quoted companies now make their annual report
available as a PDF online – thereby satisfying the
need to produce the same content in print and
online. Some of the Larger-Cap companies have
also opted to produce all of their annual report as
full web pages (or HTML). Others have opted to
produce the front ‘narrative sections’ of their
reports in HTML, while keeping the back section
as PDFs. Again, there is no right or wrong
approach – companies should simply think about
the needs of their audiences while also considering
a range of other factors, such as budget,
accessibility and transition towards wider online
communications.
It is this wider consideration that is driving some
companies towards online reporting. While they
may feel no immediate demand from their
shareholders and may see no immediate budgetary
advantage, there is a widespread acceptance that
investor communication is increasingly moving to
an online format. The annual report should form
part of that wider online investor communications
effort and sits comfortably alongside electronic
versions of investor presentations, share price
charts and AGM information.
Building the Investor Relations Programme 59