Investor Relations

IMPLEMENTING BEST PRACTICES IN INVESTOR RELATIONS 933.4 DEVELOPING THE FINANCIALCALENDARFinancial calendars are planned to comply with legal deadlines for financialinformation disclosure, of which the main categories revolve around thefollowing (see table 3.3):Quarterly, interim, and full-year revenue and earnings announcements;Annual general shareholders meetings.3.4.1 Who Prepares the Financial Calendar?Listed companies must comply with certain regulatory deadlines for disclosingfinancial information, failing which they may get into trouble with marketauthorities: Indeed, these listed companies sometimes make a point inissuing a press release listing the companies that have not respected theirobligations to release full-year earnings before a certain date. Bearing thesedeadlines in mind and knowing that they are more likely to be shortened thanextended, companies can then develop their Investor Relations calendars. Itis best to work backward and begin as far as possible in advance—ideally atleast one year ahead of time.Under the coordination of the IR department, different players must beinvolved in this planning process:Internal legal department. It knows what kind of information mustbe disclosed and by when, factoring in the board meetings held toapprove the annual and half-yearly, in some cases quarterly, financialstatements, convene the AGM, and so on.Financial reporting and consolidation. They will dictate by whenconsolidated data and financial statements will be available and validatedby the statutory auditors. Operations division managers. The Investor Relations team will wantto have enough of their time to discuss the past performances of theirrespective divisions, the outlook for the future, and possibly, involvethem in Investor Relations events such as an analyst day. Corporate communications. This department will inform the InvestorRelations team of its own schedule of events and media stories: managementinterviews, special features on technology, participation to majorconferences, trade show appearances, and so on.The chief of staff, that is, the president or the CEO . The IRO will beable to look at management’s schedule and block out dates for earningspreparation and investor meetings, for instance.