InvestorRelations

Our investor relations practice helps publicly traded corporations communicate with the institutions and individuals who buy, sell or recommend securities. Our clients use investor relations primarily to support the price of their shares; to improve the ownership profile or the trading characteristics of those shares; and to facilitate future financings or transactions.

Investor relations has never been more difficult than it is today. More companies than ever (over 7,000 U.S.-based companies alone) are competing for investor attention. More professional investors than ever (including over 10,000 hedge funds) are pursuing strategies that involve company securities. The Internet drowns companies and investors alike in both data and rumor. Regulation FD and Sarbanes-Oxley influence both the manner and the content of communications to investors. Activist investors and plaintiffs’ attorneys wait to pounce on the unwary or the unlucky.

Fortunately, the investors most companies seek want predictable things. First and foremost, good business and financial performance. Next, a simple story to explain the value a company is likely to create in the future. Then, a cogent explanation of business strategy; regular reports on business and financial progress; clear explanations of trends, events and issues; exposure to management; a responsive contact within the company; and finally, no surprises.

We help our clients to develop their optimal investor story and to identify and qualify the natural investor constituency to which this story will appeal. We conduct surveys of the attitudes and needs of current and potential investors. We prepare documents and presentations, train presenters, and manage event logistics. We advise clients on day-to-day implementation, but also on IR-specific policy issues, including earnings guidance (a little goes a long way, we think), Regulation FD compliance (many companies now say too much in public, too little in private) and dealing with activist investors (they, too, are motivated by the bottom line).

Increasingly, we are asked to help clients establish investor relations functions, including selecting and training staff, and to report to boards of directors on investor relations issues and trends.