Bridge the perception gap to success
Even with a new strategy or new management to showcase, investor days are, of course, fundamentally about the company story, so it makes sense to highlight any gaps in investor understanding beforehand.
Amelia Lee, head of investor relations at StarHub, joined the number two Singapore telco in late 2019 and had only been in the role a few months before the pandemic shut down travel and in-person meetings.
‘As the challenger brand in Singapore, there is an expectation from investors that we will do things a bit differently,’ Lee says. ‘We have to portray ourselves as trying to push boundaries and keep ourselves relevant and competitive.’ So the firm held an investor day even as others battened down on communications amid the Covid-19 uncertainty.
There is an expectation from investors that we will do things a bit differently
‘We had our own transformation happening and we thought it would be good to have a dedicated event to discuss strategy and delve into certain parts of the business that we don’t necessarily have the time or space to expand on during the quarterly calls,’ Lee explains.
Because she was so new to the firm, she says she ran a survey beforehand to get a sense of the key issues of interest to the investment community.
‘After about a year in the job and engaging with key stakeholders – both internal and external – you get a very good sense of whether there is a gap in perception,’ she points out, adding that from the second year onwards, she didn’t need a survey. ‘I meet up with analysts and investors almost weekly so it’s not difficult to get a sense of what we should be putting into our investor day program.’
David de la Roz Fernandez of eDreams ODIGEO agrees that this engagement is key to success.
‘A good investor day is all about engagement with your stakeholders,’ he explains. ‘During the year we meet with more than 150 institutional investors and at least once a month we meet with our sell-side analysts.
‘This engagement and the resulting understanding of their needs is key to a good investor day.’
T+L’s Christopher Agnew also talks about some of the prep he did before his firm’s investor day. In the build-up to the event, he spoke to others who had put on investor days as well as investors and analysts about their expectations. ‘Hopefully you’re then delivering something they were wanting to see, and that becomes a positive feedback loop,’ he says.
A good investor day is all about engagement with your stakeholders
