Targeting & Profiling
IR Perception Studies
Investor Roadshow Management
Mergers & Acquisitions
Pre-IPO IR
Bond IR
Proxy Solicitation
Targeting & Profiling
RD:IR offers UK and international public companies a fully researched systematic approach to targeting new and underweighted investors. Once potential investors have been identified by our processes, we can provide companies with detailed and customised profiling of those institutions.
Whilst RD:IR's shareholder identification services provide information on the current ownership of stock, the next stage for companies looking to widen their equity ownership is to identify those investors and funds which would be suitable investors.
The RD:IR Investor Targeting service provides focused and custom-made lists of potential new institutional investors in any selected global capital market. Unlike the scatter-gun approach used by some intermediaries, we match our clients with investors on the basis of suitability of fit between the client's stock and the potentially investing funds.
Our Investor Profiling service provides detailed background information on investors, both current and potential, in order that your company's management has all the necessary background information on the institutions they are meeting. This covers vital information on each institution such as:
Funds under management
Investment style & holding patterns
Details of key fund management personnel
Corporate structure
Corporate history
Size and type of funds managed
As part of our Investor Targeting programme we can set up meetings with the potential institutional investors and organise your whole roadshow.
IR Perception Studies
RD:IR conducts market sentiment surveys for UK and international public quoted companies to enable IR professionals and Board Directors (including the Non-Executive Directors targeted by Higgs) to gauge the views of existing and potential investors and buy- and sell-side analysts.
Our Perception Studies seek to identify investors' views in three key ways:
Cognition of the stock
Perception of the stock
Strategic suggestions for companies to improve their market communication
The regular, systematic and benchmarkable measurement of investor sentiment forms a crucial element in any public company's strategic investor relations programme. The sourcing of market views on the stock from an independent agency has become an essential part of good corporate governance. In the UK the Higgs Report specifically called for companies to use independent investor surveys to gauge market sentiment and we expect this recommendation to become the global norm over time.
Our wide experience of this type of surveying tells us that it is only by sourcing independent in-depth research that companies can find out what the market really thinks about their stock. Using this knowledge - which has not passed through the filter of an intermediary with potential conflicts of interest - companies can build a strategy to improve their relationship with the markets by improving the presentation of their investment case.
RD:IR offers companies an independent research process outside of the potential conflicts of interest that can arise from the traditional stockbroker-centred information flow model.
Our IR Perception Studies include three elements which can be customised to your exact requirement.
Annual Benchmark Perception Studies We highly recommend that public companies carry out benchmark market perception studies at least on an annual basis in order that they track investor sentiment towards their stock and also to provide management and IROs with a metric to measure the effectiveness of their IR strategy.
Our surveys can be as far-ranging or as specific as the client requires. We can identify investor views on a wide range of issues central to the company's position within the market including:
Business activity
Business strategy
Quality of management
Position within the sector
Quality of market communication (financial and non-financial)
Investor relations process
Presentation of the investment case
Research is carried out on both an attributable and a non-attributable basis as appropriate.
Pre-meeting investor polling
Institutional investors have varying expectations and demands based on the profile of their institution, their investment process and the attributes of the funds that they run. In order to maximise the effectiveness of one-to-one meetings with investors, we recommend the prior polling of fund managers and analysts to identify their requirements of the meeting. This action is especially appropriate in the case of potential new investors or investors who have not been met for some time. Management can use this information to fine-tune their presentation and their message to the needs of the investor.
Post-meeting investor polling
It is essential that research of investors' views is carried out promptly after any meeting with the company in order that management can gauge the effectiveness of the delivery of their message and to clear up any outstanding issues from the investor's point of view. As an independent agency, RD:IR offers a bias-free approach where investors can provide sentiment to companies through us on an unconflicted basis.
Investor Roadshow Management
The RD:IR Investor Roadshow service provides clients with a full service investor meeting programme when the company wants to meet current or new investors in any global financial market.
Our services include:
Introducing clients to potential investors
Setting up meetings with current or potential new investors
Organising the schedule of meetings with investors
Running the logistics of the road-show
Helping with the building of presentations
Accompanying companies on the roadshow
Providing pre- and post-meeting sentiment polling of investors
Mergers & Acquisitions
Most of our clients are engaged in an ongoing strategic Investor Relations programme and use all or some of our services to help them in this capacity. However, we are frequently appointed to help companies on an ad-hoc basis with special projects.
The services most frequently used include:
Share Register Analysis & Stockwatch companies involved in mergers and acquisitions need accurate, real-time analysis of their (or the target's) share register as stock ownership changes on a daily basis. We provide clients with share register analysis at any desired frequency, included daily reporting, and alerts of changes in their own or a target company's shareholders.
IR Perception Studies companies need to know in advance and in-depth how shareholders would feel about a proposed takeover, acquisition or strategy development. At these times our IR Perception Studies provide crucial insights into investor sentiment that will play a key role in shaping communications strategy for the corporate action.
Shareholder Profiling companies considering or involved in corporate actions or strategy announcements need to know in advance as much detail as possible how their key shareholders will react. Our shareholder profiles provide detailed background information on specific funds and investment managers.
Pre-IPO IR
Private companies waiting in the pipeline to go public can benefit enormously from running Investor Relations programmes before their IPO to action distribution and dissemination of financial and other corporate information to potential buy-side investors and sell-side analysts.
RD:IR offers private companies full strategic IR programmes to provide tailored and focused distribution of IR materials to relevant investment professionals in the period leading up to the IPO.
Our databases of institutional investors and private client stockbroker & fund managers allow properly targeted investor contact programmes across all global markets for companies in any sector.
During the period immediately before the IPO, we can help private companies ensure that they are meeting the right mix of investors and audit the work carried out by the investment banks and stockbrokers.
At the point of the IPO and afterwards, we will monitor the construction of the share register, track the many changes in stock ownership in the period immediately after the IPO and advise on the future IR strategy.
Bond IR
IR professionals in all markets need increasingly to take into consideration the information demands of fixed-income stakeholders where their company has debt in issue. Debt holders now request the same level of contact and quality of financial information as equity holders and frequently turn up at investor meetings with management. IROs and company management need therefore better understanding of the needs of debt holders and their levels of ownership of the debt instruments.
RD:IR provides UK corporates with advice on improving communication to bond holders including:
Sourcing of debt instrument ownership data where possible
Use of existing IR communication media to include bond holders
Research of debt holder sentiment on an attributable and non-attributable basis
Proxy Solicitation
RD:IR offers small- and medium-sized UK public companies a full proxy solicitation service either on a stand-alone basis or in conjunction with other service providers such as registrars.
Our widely recognised skills in the area of shareholder analysis place RD:IR in prime position to help companies garner support for corporate actions amongst institutional and private investors by providing the following services:
Using in-depth shareholder analysis we can provide you with a full list of your nominee, beneficial, institutional and private client investors; identify discretionary and non-discretionary fund manager and private client stockbroker holders; advise you of likely nominee / custodian handling of proxy forms.
We conduct telephone campaigns to nominees, custodians, stockbrokers, institutional investors and private shareholders adhering strictly to FSA conduct guidelines.
Our Financial Research team are experts in sourcing information from overseas custodians and their experience can be invaluable in dealing with overseas investors during any proxy campaign.