Managing Investor Relations

Alexander Laskin

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781606490808
• eBook ISBN: 9781606490815
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

This book will examine the profession of investor relations from the practical standpoint. The book will define what investor relations is, what investor relations professionals do, what skills and competencies are required to become a successful investor relations practitioner and, finally, how to outsource investor relations services. Investor relations is a profession on the borderline between communication, finance and law. This book will address each of these three competencies as essential for successful practice. The book will discuss how these areas contribute to the day-to-day practice of investor relations and what demands they impose on the investor relations professionals.

Chapter 1

Introduction

This book is dedicated to one of the most important functions of modern corporations, investor relations. Investor relations is responsible for raising shareholder capital to enable corporations to implement their vision into reality. Investor relations helps companies survive through various stages of their development by enabling access to shareholder capital. Finally, investor relations ensures corporate executives are doing everything they can to lead corporations to long-term sustainable growth, while simultaneously benefiting the society and providing financial returns to shareholders.

The book consists of four sections. The first section discusses what investor relations is. The definition of the investor relations profession is discussed in detail, and key assumptions on which investor relations relies upon are analyzed.

The second section of the book includes chapters 3, 4, and 5 and is dedicated to the factors that influence the profession of investor relations. This section starts with the historic developments of the profession—changes in the societal and political environments created the need for investor relations and continued changing the functions and roles of investor relations professionals. Three periods in investor relations development are identified and described: communication era, financial era, and at present, synergy era. The historical changes and current state of legislature governing investor relations also are analyzed. The second section of the book concludes with the discussion of professional and ethical obligations of investor relations officers.

The third section of the book reviews the activities investor relations officers perform on day-by-day basis. Conference calls, investor meetings, annual reports, and other tactics that form the foundation of investor relations are discussed. From tactics, the book shifts to strategies. What is the strategic goal of investor relations? The book finds the answer in building relationships with the financial community to create shareowners out of shareholders with extended holding periods, active involvement with the company, and two-way communication with the corporate executives. The relationship building function of investor relations is analyzed and necessary components to the success of relationship building strategies—such as extended disclosure going beyond minimum financial disclosure requirements as well as increased focus on nonfinancial information that can explain the company’s business model and future growth potential—are discussed. This section includes chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Finally, the last section of the book tries to take a peek into the future of the profession. What will happen with investor relations tomorrow? How will the profession and professionals need to change to better adjust to the future demands that investors, legislators, and various financial market players impose on them? What will the continued globalization of the financial markets bring to the profession? How can the profession use to its best advantage the changing technological landscape with advent and adoption of electronic communications, social media, and instantaneous trades

Chapter 2

What Is Investor Relations?

The professional organization of investor relations officers, National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), adopted the latest definition of the profession in March 2003. Investor relations is defined as “a strategic management responsibility that integrates finance, communication, marketing and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company’s securities achieving fair valuation.”¹ This definition was a significant step forward from the previous version adopted by NIRI in 1996, where investor relations was labeled “a marketing activity” with the purpose of “providing an accurate portrayal of a company” in order to have “a positive effect on a company’s value.”

The current definition moves away from the narrow marketing focus on sales and promotions as it now includes finance, communications, and law to the mix of investor relations activities. This is indicative of the changes that the field of investor relations experienced at the start of the 21st century with the wave of corporate scandals and changes in securities regulations (described later in chapter 5). Indeed, today investor relations cannot be a simple marketing activity—rather, it is a strategic management responsibility. Investor relations is not concentrated within the investor relations department—the whole company is run with the interests of shareholders in mind. Investor relations officers must be members of the top management team and be present whenever key corporate decisions are being made rather than simply communicate, or market, these decisions to shareholders after they have been decided upon. The investor relations officer’s responsibility is to make sure the interests of investors and shareholders are taken into account and, in the event they are not, raise this issue in front of all corporate managers and the board of directors to ensure that decisions that do not meet the interests of shareholders are not accepted.

Another important change in the definition was the addition of two-way communications. Two-way communications was added to the definition of investor relations to substitute one-way flow of providing information about the company. Previously, investor relations was often equated with disclosure—we put information out there, the rest is not our business. The shareholders, however, demanded to be heard. The feedback loop in communications is a necessity. As the influence of shareholders grows, the companies that refuse to listen to shareholders suffer.

In fact, companies should demand from their investor relations officers to conduct shareholder research in order to learn who owns the stock, why they own the stock, and what shareholders think about the company, its management, and the decisions that management makes. NIRI recommends, “The company’s investor relations officer… should be required to meet with an independent committee of the board… to report feedback from investors and analysts.”²

The feedback is analyzed at the highest level of the organizational hierarchy and is used in the decision making and strategic planning. CEOs expect their investor relations officers to be actively engaged in the corporate decision making and supply the information from shareholders and about shareholders to the management team. Indeed, it is vital for the management of the company to know who the organization’s investors are as such knowledge enables the company to serve investors better. Kevin Rollins, former president of Dell Inc., explains, “We’ve also charged our investor relations team with sharing and interpreting feedback from the investment community for us… ultimately, my job and Michael’s [CEO Michael Dell] job is to lead Dell in a way that drives sustainable, dependable shareholder value over time.”³

The third important change in the definition concerned the overall goal of the investor relations activities. Earlier, the goal was to have a positive effect on the share price—the higher the better. Enron’s disaster can arguably be attributed to such a view on investor relations. Current definition of investor relations emphasizes the need for a “fair value” as opposed to a “high value.” The goal is to help investors and financial analysts understand the true value of the company’s business and to help them adjust their estimates no matter if it means decrease or increase in the stock price. In other words, mistaken overevaluation can be as dangerous for the company as underevaluation as it can be a source of sudden volatility in stock price and trading volume. Effective investor relations becomes the foundation of the capital markets that depend on the complete and timely disclosure of relevant information. Investor relations cannot hide any information, either positive or negative, as it will lead to mistakes in the evaluation of the company’s stock.

Investor relations practiced in the way described above—integrated into the top management decisions process, based on two-way communications, and aiming for a fair stock valuation—can become a source of competitive advantage for a corporation. And this competitive advantage is quite important. Indeed, companies are accustomed to competing on the product markets. Companies producing TV sets know other producers of TV sets, their product lineups, price points, major production facilities, and technological innovations. The competition is typically contained within one industry, and it is quite possible to track the changing landscape of this particular industry. Investor relations, on the other hand, is responsible for competition for capital. This competition is not limited to any particular industry. In fact, a company on the capital markets competes with any other publicly traded company from various industries and from all over the globe. This competition is extremely complex and tracking this changing environment is an enormous task.

Yet the shareholder capital is a scarce resource, and not every business can get access to the financial resources. So if a company needs capital to finance growth or enter new markets or simply needs resources beyond its cash flow, it becomes a job of the investor relations departments to identify investors for the company, target them with company’s communications, create opportunities for the investors to acquire stock in the company, and establish and maintain relationships with them.

It is a constant effort—it is not sufficient to attract investors and then abandon any communications with them. Investors have an opportunity to sell the company’s stock. One also cannot rely just on its performance—actions do not always speak for themselves. Marcus and Wallace compare investor relations with a hoop: “It keeps rolling only as long as you keep hitting it with a stick. The minute you stop, the hoop stops and falls over.”⁴

The modern concept of investor relations is part of the efficient market hypothesis. The efficient market hypothesis assumes that all markets are in equilibrium: all securities are fairly priced, and all provide equal returns. In this situation, no investor can consistently beat the market, and thus there is no reason to constantly buy and sell shares of companies trying to outperform the average market return.

The efficient market hypothesis, however, requires key assumptions to be met: all relevant information about the company and its performance is publicly available, all market participants have equal access to such information on a timely basis, and all investors are rational and capable of evaluating the information available to them. Investor relations is charged with providing the information from the company to shareholders, financial analysts, and other market participants.

In this situation, investor relations becomes a key activity not just for a particular company but for the whole modern economy. The survival of modern capitalism depends on how well investor relations officers perform their task in ensuring equal access to information for various financial market participants. Thus, investor relations is charged with the task of ensuring that the key assumptions of the efficient market hypothesis are met through extensive and timely disclosure of all relevant information pertaining to the company and its stock.

Chapter 3

Investor Relations: Past

The history of the investor relations profession is not very long. It is a young specialization that is still forming today. Yet it is possible to recognize two separate periods in the historic development of investor relations in the United States: the communication era and the financial era. The beginning of the communication era can generally be dated back to 1945, while the start of the financial era dates back to 1975. The present era of investor relations, synergy era, started in 2002.

Communication Era

The earliest mention of the investor relations function can be traced back to Ralth Cordiner, a chairman of General Electric, who in 1953 created a department in charge of all shareholder communications.¹ In the late 1950s and 1960s, investor relations departments started appearing at a number of large companies; consulting agencies first began offering investor relations services. Most of the investor relations work, however, focused on putting the word about organizations out and on attracting attention of financial publics to the stock. David Silver recalls that “investor relations emerged into its own in the 1960s, often associated… with the so-called dog and pony shows for sell-side analysts and retail investors, usually held at the offices of securities brokerages.”²

The development of the investor relations profession was a response to the changing economic and sociopolitical environments. The economic boom of the 1950s generated wealth for private Americans and, at the same time, encouraged business expansion to satisfy the constantly growing needs of consumers. The corporations needed money to grow and develop; people needed a way to invest surplus income. In this situation, the meeting of the two worlds was inevitable. DeWitt Morrill reminisces,

The public, for the first time, began to get into the market. True, individuals had played the market in the 1920s, but nothing to match the numbers and trading volume of the 1950s and 1960s. Where the markets of pre-Depression era were financed largely by credit (no margin requirements!), sad memories and new laws governing securities markets stirred post-WWII investors to favor cash. It is not surprising that this confluence of forces found expression in rising stock prices. Corporate earnings rose strongly—but price-earning multiples expanded even more. The circumstances were made-to-order for successful investing, no matter how speculative it was inherently. The rising tide was lifting all boats.³

The new kind of player on the financial market—a private shareholder—caused some changes in the boardrooms across the country. The consumer-product corporations realized first that these new shareholders were also fruitful targets for consumer marketing efforts. And vice versa, consumers of the company’s products could be targeted to become shareholders. The first corporations to strategically target private shareholders-consumers were car companies such as Ford, GM, and Chrysler. Indeed, shareholders were likely to purchase a car made by the company in which they owned stock rather than made by its competitor. Increasing the demand for stock became an important part of the corporate agenda: “Occupants of the executive suites were quick to see, that all of this demand for stock was helping to push prices up and up. This helped immensely to finance growth, enhance empires.”⁴

The companies accustomed to competing on the product markets brought similar tactics, resources, and budgets to their competition on the financial markets. It is not a surprise then that in this situation management turned to the recognized experts who were already engaged with the consumers—advertisement and public relations. Investor relations became viewed as an extension of public relations function.

In the 1950s, however, public relations was not a well-established practice itself. Only the largest companies had internal public relations staff, and the functions and roles of public relations were quite limited. At that time, public relations was still struggling for the right to strategically manage itself as it was often a purely technical function of media relations. Public relations education and research were not fully developed. Lack of a systematized body of knowledge and qualified educated personnel made it difficult for public relations to provide quality service in the investor relations field. Although pioneers of public relations, having acquired tremendous experience during World War II, started offering strategic counseling, for many public relations was still mere press-agentry: “The practitioners in the field, along with the whole discipline of public relations itself, just ‘grew like Topsy’ without a common body of knowledge or without evolving any theory to guide their problem-solving efforts.”⁵

As a result, the new and not-well-established public relations function was suddenly charged with the additional duties of investor relations—a job for which most practitioners on the corporate or agency sides were not qualified. So, they approached this new task in the same way they performed their public relations tasks—relying on press-agentry and publicity. Morrill reminisces that investor relations in these early years was “transformed into publicity, promotion an...

Table of contents

• Managing Investor Relations: Strategies for Effective Communication
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: What Is Investor Relations?
• Chapter 3: Investor Relations: Past
• Chapter 4: Investor Relations: Present
• Chapter 5: Legal Environment
• Chapter 6: Ethics and Professionalism
• Chapter 7: Main Activities
• Chapter 8: Focus on Relationship Building
• Chapter 9: Focus on Extended Disclosure
• Chapter 10: Focus on Nonfinancial Information
• hapter 11: Future of Investor Relations
• About the Author
• Notes
• References