A Cross Border publication

www.InsideInvestorRelations.com

March 2013

research

Satisfying our curiosity

Lloyd Bevan unearths some interesting results from last years IRO survey
In the summer of 2012, as part of IR Magazines global IRO survey, we asked a number of questions relating to IR departmental responsibility, outsourcing and external IR service provision. Findings from these questions went on to be used in the IR Magazine Global Practice Report 2012 and were expanded upon in last months article on IR outsourcing (see Letting the outside in, February 2013, page 8). One question from this survey that we have not reported upon until now concerns IROs favorite service providers: we asked respondents to name their first, second and third-favorite service providers, the services they provide and their reasons for choosing them. The question was asked more for our own curiosity than for the compiling of a formal ranking, but the results have proved too interesting to keep to ourselves. Although the initial question was asked in an informal manner, we have analyzed the results with the same rigorous methodology we use for our IR Magazine Awards, with a system of points allocated proportionately to first, second and third favorites. More than 450 individual votes on IR service provision around the world are represented here.

research

Which is your favorite service provider?

IR Magazine founder Janet Dignan assesses the comments of the IROs who responded, and gives her take on the findings

T
1 2 3 4 5 6

he IR Magazine annual surveys of investor relations practice around the world ask IROs numerous questions about their working lives: how many people they have in their teams; how long theyve been in IR; which cities they travel to on roadshows; how much theyre paid; how much input

favorite service providers: Global Provider Thomson Reuters Ipreo Orient Capital Shareholder.com Computershare King Worldwide MZ NASDAQ Bloomberg FTI consulting Georgeson Points 322 166 63 46 39 36 35 35 31 30 30

they get from senior management; and much more besides. We publish the results of these surveys both online and in a series of hard-copy publications, from the substantial annual IR Magazine Global Practice Report to smaller reports on roadshows, for instance, or crisis management or say on pay. Its all good serious stuff but, in a more light-hearted vein, in last years survey we also asked respondents to name their favorite service providers in fact, their top three favorites and to tell us what they use them for and why they like them so much. Of course, relationships between clients and service providers vary enormously: some are very businesslike, others more personal; some are short term, others go on for years, even decades, with a real sense of loyalty and trust being established between service provider and client. The difference may just be a feature of the nature of the work or a product of the personalities involved. Without going into such matters in far more detail, its hard to be sure which ones fall into which categories, but the reasons given by companies for favoring certain consultants and advisers over others betray some broad groups.

=7 =7 9 =10 =10

Leader of the pack

Take Thomson Reuters, far and away the most popular service provider not just globally but also in each of the three biggest geographical groups of Europe, Asia and North America. IROs selecting Thomson as their favorite cited a whole range of services provided to them by the group, from targeting and shareholder ID to webcasts, consensus earnings estimates, FirstCall, and more. As for clients reasons

30

www.InsideInvestorRelations.com | March 2013 IR MAGAZINE

RESEARCH

Services rendered
Services offered by first-preference service providers

46%

49%

10% 13% 15% 16% 21% 27%

Shareholder ID, targeting & surveillance Website & webcasting Financial PR, press release distribution & newswires IR consultancy services & support Annual reports Conference calls Proxy solicitation Other services

for citing Thomson Reuters as their favorite, these were many and various, too. Many mentioned the breadth of the companys offerings, the length of their relationship with Thomson, the firms responsiveness, quality of service, timeliness and reliability. Those of our respondents blessed with a capacity for brevity or were they just short of time? provided a selection of one-word answers for their choice of Thomson as their favorite service provider. Examples include: accuracy, delivers, discount, legacy, outstanding, quality, reliable, responsive. Others were (relatively) expansive but even then there were no wasted words: I use it daily. Outstanding, one said. From another: Provides industry-leading financial content and advanced analytical tools.

voters beyond North America: five from Europe and four from Asia. Most of these clients describe the Ipreo services they use as encompassing targeting, surveillance and shareholder identification; and they are particularly enthusiastic about the individuals they work with at Ipreo. Good analysts, said one. Insightful, happy to help the team with things that may not be formally in scope [Ipreo] feels like a real partner to IR. Another said: We have a solid long-term relationship with Ipreo. It has proven time and time again its ability to step up and deliver what it says it will. Orient Capital, third-placed in the global popularity stakes, is also second in Asia and third in Europe. The firm isnt active in the US, unlike its top three peers, which makes its ranking particularly impressive. And the firm certainly has enthusiastic supporters, who call its service fantastic and describe it as exceptionally professional.

favorite service providers: US & Canada

Provider 1 2 3 4 5 =6 =6 Thomson Reuters Ipreo Shareholder.com NASDAQ Computershare Marketwire SNL Financial Points 193 119 46 33 28 21 21

Runners-up
Chasing hard on the heels of Thomson, both in North America and globally, comes Ipreo. Ipreos fans are predominantly in the US and Canada, with just nine

IR MAGAZINE March 2013 | www.InsideInvestorRelations.com 31

research
dont necessarily regard recently merged entities as single businesses; in many cases, loyalty to the brands and the individuals providing the services persists long after a deal has closed and the rebranding is complete. Examples of this attitude include the separate listings of Computershare and Georgeson in the rankings, despite those two firms now being one entity called Computershare Georgeson. Brunswick and Merchant Cantos appear separately, too, as do King Worldwide and Capital Precision. Weve chosen to accept the names as proffered by IROs, because we assume this is evidence that these are the businesses to which they remain loyal. The tables on these pages are straight tallies of

favorite service providers: Europe

Provider 1 2 =3 =3 5 Thomson Reuters King Worldwide Equity Story Makinson Cowell Orient Capital Points 54 35 27 27 21

Like the other global top three service providers, Orient Capital specializes in shareholder analysis, tracking, targeting and related fields. To some extent, this helps all three firms in these rankings since, according to the findings recorded in the IR Magazine Global Practice Report 2012, this is the area of activity corporate investor relations departments most commonly choose to outsource. Indeed, 64 percent of IR departments that have primary responsibility for targeting and shareholder ID at their companies say they commission external service providers for this aspect of investor relations.

favorite service providers: Asia

Provider 1 2 3 =4 =4 Thomson Reuters Orient Capital ShareInvestor Hill & Knowlton MZ Points 50 27 24 21 21

Together but apart

In fourth place comes Shareholder.com, wholly owned by NASDAQ OMX. And of course NASDAQ is currently in the process of finalizing its most recent acquisition: the IR, PR and webcasting businesses its buying from Thomson Reuters. That presents the prospect in the near future of a single group truly dominating the investor relations service space even more so than now. But the fact that similar numbers of IROs voted for Shareholder.com and for NASDAQ suggests clients

firms being cited as first, second and third favorites by a random selection of corporate clients around the world. Theres no weighting for company size and weve paid no attention to service providers own published client lists. Regardless of such fine details, the tables show some surprising presences and absences among the IR service providers around the world of which doubtless their current, future and former clients will take note. zy

Favorite providers by respondent cap size

Small/mid-cap
1 2 3 4 5 Thomson Reuters Ipreo NASDAQ Shareholder.com Orient Capital 1 2 3 4 =5 =5

Large/mega-cap
Thomson Reuters Ipreo Orient Capital Bloomberg Georgeson King Worldwide

32

www.InsideInvestorRelations.com | March 2013 IR MAGAZINE