Investor Relations

14INVESTOR RELATIONSwith prospective investors. This will require significant planning along withthorough and rigorous training. Also, one of the goals will be to make surethat executives who are temporarily acting as “traveling salesmen” do nothave to worry themselves with “housekeeping issues.” It is a good idea, forinstance, to have enough business cards printed beforehand in the languagesof the countries to be visited, to inquire about their dietary requirements, orfavorite hotels in the cities that will be included in the tour. Disseminating Investor Relations information. The first stephere consists of building the distribution lists, from the company’s internalsources or from third-party vendors, prior to pricing. It will allow the companyto announce itself the completion of its IPO. The Investor Relationsdistribution list will contain key sell- and buy-side analyst and investorcontacts. An Investor Relations firm can be called in to supply prospectivecontacts in the investment community, who may eventually be interestedin covering or in investing in the company. Depending on the communicationsstrategy elected by the company, these lists can also include businesspartners, commercial suppliers, in addition to the media and the investmentcommunity. Once the IPO supporting documents and materials have beenvalidated, they are to be delivered to these target audiences in target regions(retail investors, financial analysts, institutional investors, and journalists)in at least two languages if English is not the company’s official language; Analyzing analyst and investor meetings in real time to improvethe equity story and key messages. Writing down every single questionasked during meetings will help managers prepare their aftermarket presentations,and keep the Q&A bible up to date. Ideally, they should be briefedregularly on how their responses are perceived by investors and analysts,beyond what financial research or media clippings might suggest, whichwill benefit, whenever possible, from suggestions on where to improve theirpresentations, and how to appear more confident and convincing. Futureissuers should also take advantage of these meetings to learn more abouttheir potential stakeholders, taking every opportunity to inquire about theamounts they manage, their investment policies, and their expectations interms of Investor Relations. This dialogue opportunity is often overlooked,to the dismay of fund managers. All information gathered from thesemeetings will be invaluable to the company during the subsequent phases.Throughout this second phase of the Investor Relations process during anIPO, it is essential that IROs and staff be organized and trained toprovide back-up during road shows;take on much heavier and more intense workloads. Outside help can becalled in (temporary staff, private contractors, or outsourcing) to respondto the flow of inquiries resulting from the IPO marketing frenzy;