Sample: IR Benchmarking research report
Sample: IR Benchmarking research report
<sup>Sample Research Report:</sup>
IR Benchmarking
<sup>What means are used to measure the quality of IR?
How do teams gain investor feedback on their IR programs?
How is IR viewed by senior management?
Has Covid-19 changed IR benchmarking and senior management attitudes?</sup>
Part of the nature of investor relations is that its practice is not directly quantifiable. It is as much art as science so there are no definitive KPIs by which to measure its success. Evaluating best practice in IR is dependent on factors that may vary according to the specific needs and aims of a company’s IR program.
This report looks at which factors are important in measuring the success of IR. It examines how companies obtain feedback from investors on their IR program and the importance of IR to senior management at their company. We also look at how the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the evaluation of IR and the role of ESG in investor relations.
Findings in this report are from research undertaken in the IR Magazine Global IR Survey conducted during Q3 2021.
Data is broken down by region and company size. For the purposes of this report, market cap is defined as follows:
- The most important factor for IR teams in measuring the quality of their company’s investor relations is their success in investor meetings and events.
- More than *** in 10 Asian IROs rate investment community feedback as very important in measuring IR.
- Mid-cap and mega-cap IROs place greater importance on feedback from both investors and senior management than do small or large-cap IROs.
- Approaching *** in 10 IROs say they rely a lot on informal discussions with investors in evaluating IR performance.
- A substantial majority of IROs think senior management at their company views IR as very important.
- More than *** of IROs say their senior management’s view of IR has changed as a result of Covid-19, with *** percent seeing no change.
- *** of IROs say the way they evaluate IR success has changed as a result of the pandemic, while *** percent measure success in the same manner they did before.
- A majority of IROs believe the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has increased the importance of ESG in their evaluation of IR, with 15 percent viewing it as much more important.
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The most important factor for IR teams in measuring the quality of their company’s investor relations is their success in investor meetings and events. When asked to rate importance to measuring IR, 84 percent of IROs see meetings, roadshows and events as very important, giving a rating of 8+ out of 10. More than a third of IROs view them as extremely important by giving a perfect 10 score.
Feedback from the investment community closely follows as the second-most important factor in assessing IR, with more than eight in 10 IROs viewing what the community has to say about their IR program as very important. Just under three in 10 see it as extremely important, giving a 10/10 score.
Speed of response to investors and analysts and senior management feedback are both seen as very important in assessing IR by more than two thirds of IR professionals. Analyst coverage and shareholder base composition are also seen as very important by a majority of IR professionals.
The least-important factor in assessing the quality of IR is share price: while 32 percent of respondents give it a rating of 8+/10, 22 percent view it as not important, giving a rating of below five. Other less-important factors include peer benchmarking and level of engagement, which includes such areas as number of inquiries, downloads of documents or visits to the website.
Previous pages in this report show the importance of investor feedback for IROs when measuring the success of their IR program. In gaining insight from the investment community, IROs depend mostly on informal discussions with investors. Approaching eight in 10 IROs say they rely on such discussions a lot in evaluating IR performance, while just 1 percent do not rely on them at all.
Communication with brokers joins informal conversations with investors as the two clearly most relied-upon means of getting feedback on IR. Half of IROs globally rely a lot on the views of brokers when assessing the value of their IR program, with a further 41 percent saying they rely on brokers a little.
Investor perception studies, either by a third party or commissioned in-house, are relied upon to some degree by a majority of IR professionals. Just 7 percent rely a lot on IR firms to gauge investor opinion, while 63 percent of IROs say they do not rely on IR firms at all.
Post-Covid senior management view of IR
Post-Covid senior management view of IR
The general view of IROs is that the experience of Covid-19 has not led to a widespread shift in senior management’s attitude to investor relations. Globally, more than one in four IROs say their senior management’s view of IR has changed as a result of Covid-19, with 73 percent seeing no change.
Change in attitude does vary according to region, however. Fewer than one in five European IROs think their senior managers view IR differently as a result of the pandemic. This compares with 48 percent of Asian IROs who have witnessed a change in senior management’s approach.
There are small variations in views according to company size, too. While a quarter of small-cap respondents and just over a quarter of mega-cap IROs see a post-pandemic shift in senior management’s attitude to IR, this figure rises to 28 percent of largecap IROs and three in 10 mid-cap IROs.
Has the way senior management views IR changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic?
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