Find below interesting results of the 2015 IRO Survey on the evolution of Investor Relations practices in Europe. The survey was conducted in November 2015 and is based on sample of 245 companies listed in Europe.
Main takeaways:
- Head of IR: 70% of Head of IR have been in an IR role for less than ten years. 40% have been at their positions for fewer than five years. 26% of Heads of IR hold greater functions in financial communication. When that is the case (principally at small caps), the most frequent function is that of head of corporate communications. 13% are also on a management committee.
- IR set-up: priority is given to “market” knowledge and perception in the broad sense. However, the use of digital tools remains weak. Real tendencies exist in terms of team size, budget, and responsibilities based on market capitalisation. Beyond Equity analysts and investors, a minority of IR teams manage other stakeholders: ESG (33%), retail shareholders (31%), rating agencies (27%) and credit investors (21%) Practices are relatively different among large and mid and small caps.
- Management and IR: Allocation of management roadshows remains highly discretionary. The “carbon-free” format is developing slowly. Access to Chairman, board of directors and operational managers is in increasing demand. The three principal criteria for allocation of management roadshows are, unsurprisingly, the track record/quality of previous roadshows organised by a broker (targeting, programme, logistics, feedbacks), the quality of relations with the analyst and with the Corporate Access teams. Banking relations and Extel rankings are also taken into account, but to a lesser extent.
- IR and regulation: MiFID2 and FCA/Corporate Access remain seen as, perhaps wrongly, “non subjects”. The IROs questioned estimate their level of knowledge on MiFID2 to be very limited, but they do not feel very concerned.
Download the results here.