The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the way we interact with everyone, including investors. Virtual meetings and conferences have become the new normal. While the personal, face-to-face conversations are missed, this format is likely to continue to some degree even after the current climate changes.
Earlier in the pandemic, IHS Markit reported the results of a survey of investor relations officers in which 97 percent stated that the emergence of COVID-19 has changed their IR plans for the next 12 months; 94 percent showed an interest to implement a virtual investor activity as part of their calendar. As we look to the second half of the year, the evolving dynamics of this pandemic, coupled with associated adjustments to virtual settings, prompt a suggested revisiting of your IR activities for the rest of this year and beyond. We highlight some of our own recommendations below.
EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT CALENDAR
In looking back at the first half of this year, consider how many days you have spent meeting with the investment community. How many investment banking conferences have you attended each quarter? Were these conferences held by covering banks or targeted banks? What are the remaining banking conferences for the year? Are they virtual? Are there any that are sponsored by banks that you are targeting? Have you gone on the road virtually? And for how many days? Did you have group meetings or one-on-ones, and were they productive? How many top shareholders and new or targeted investors were you able to meet? Did you have a preference on the different settings or the number of investors attending? These are just a handful of questions to ask.
BE SELECTIVE
A key benefit of the virtual setting is efficiency – simply put, planning for investor meetings and conferences is more flexible and cost-effective without travel as a variable to consider.
Additionally, geography is no longer a limiting barrier. As a result, management teams have more latitude in choosing events they wish to take part in, along with more leeway when it comes to investor targeting. We recommend taking advantage of this versatility and meeting with investors who you may not have met with before due to time and location (e.g., consider international institutional investors or institutional investors based in unexplored geographic regions within the U.S.).
The flipside of this level of flexibility is the potential for meetings to overlap. We suggest that you continue with the traditional approach of targeting investors geographically. But if you feel that a schedule is lackluster or scant in meetings, we encourage targeting additional regions as part of investor outreach. Expanding to different areas can lead to more productive schedules.
At the same time, we recommend keeping track of any meetings held or regions targeted. In this way, any overlaps in areas or with investor meetings can be prevented, while time can be maximized and expanded geographic outreach can be achieved.
EXPAND EVENTS TO INCLUDE A BROADER TEAM BEYOND THE CEO AND CFO
With travel out of the equation, related cost savings, along with more availability, consider adding more of your team beyond your CEO and CFO to join these events. Think about holding an investor/analyst day in conjunction with a data release, trade conference seminar or new product launch. As part of this day, consider having different team members from product development, clinical or commercial speak alongside your CEO and/or CFO. Shaking up events in this way could provide them with more color, and more importantly, showcase your teams’ expertise in their respective fields. Ultimately, this helps build confidence in your company’s general mission.
FINAL TIPS
Finally, we recommend that you target at least two to three events each quarter with one-half to two days maximum spent on each event. Make sure that you request breaks and/or lunch built into each day and stick with video conference settings, if possible, to try and capture a more personal exchange.
For additional information on how to most effectively adjust or plan out your IR calendar, contact our team. We have helped our clients revisit IR calendars in this new virtual world we are navigating, and we would be happy to support and guide you through this strategic planning as well.
Ji-Yon Yi, Associate
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