IR Magazine Forum - Canada provides Investor Relations Officers an opportunity to hear from peers, advisors, and investors
I recently had the opportunity to sit on a panel with other investors at the IR Magazine Forum - Canada. The event took place at the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel on Wednesday, May 25th, 2022. The purpose was to give investor relations professionals from across Canada practical ideas they could implement in their own investor relations programs.
Due to the pandemic, this was the first time in three years the event was held 'in-person'. Topics included: targeting institutional investors, the changing nature of sell-side brokerage analysts, how to engage with exchange-trade funds, attracting retail investors, and the future of investor roadshows. Presenters shared post-pandemic strategies, creative best practices, ESG reporting ideas, and strategies for using new technologies.
Below are some clips of my small contributions to the event.
What makes a good Investor Relations Officer?
Over the years, I have been fortunate to meet with management teams from countless companies. The companies have been from many industries and countries and range from very small to very large in size. Theses interactions have given me a good take on what investors like to see from investor relations professionals.
How should Investor Relations be positioned in this environment?
Markets today are at a unique juncture where investors have started to look for different attributes in companies. This presents challenges to some management teams that might now be asked to provide different information to investors.
What do Investors want from an Investor Relations Website?
Many companies go to great lengths to help investors understand their history, strategy, governance, market position, and performance. This is achieved through different mediums, including their websites. The investor panel provided suggestions to companies to help optimize their investor relations websites.
What do Investors want from Company Conference Calls and Investor Days?
After listening to countless conference calls and investor days, there are certain formats I like, and some I don't like. These events are a great opportunity for companies to communicate with the investment community.
Summing Up
It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to speak to the investor relations professionals at the IR Magazine Forum - Canada. I hope I was able to pass on some useful advice and observations from meeting with many companies over the years. I believe management teams can add value by ensuring investors understand their companies well. For instance, investor relations professionals can help lower their companies' cost of capital if they ensure there are always many debt and equity investors who are familiar with their companies. This includes helping investors follow their industry, the risks they face, their strategy, their attributes, their performance metrics, their incentive plans, their governance, their internal controls, their capital allocation, their ESG progress, etc., etc.
If you would like to learn more about the companies we have met, and what we look for in management teams, please contact us. We would be happy to discuss with you how we decide which companies make it into our portfolios. We are always eager to discuss our investment philosophy and how we feel it can help build wealth over time.
Until next time!
Erin
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