IROs most satisfied with direct engagement
Arranging meetings
Almost half of the meetings IR teams hold with investors are arranged involving a sell-side corporate access desk. Globally, four in 10 meetings are arranged solely using sell-side corporate access and 7 percent are arranged in collaboration with both buy-side and sell-side corporate access desks.
The next most common way for IROs to arrange meetings with investors is by direct contact with the investor without any intermediary. This is the approach used for 37 percent of all meetings with investors. Other methods not involving sell-side corporate access or direct contact account for the arrangement of a much smaller proportion of investor meetings.
Regionally, North American IROs have the most direct contact with the buy side, with 42 percent of their investor meetings arranged this way. Asian IROs have the majority of their investor meetings arranged via the sell side, while 28 percent are arranged via direct contact with the investor.
According to company size, small-cap firms have the highest proportion of investor meetings arranged through direct contact and the lowest percentage involving the sell side. Mega-cap companies have the highest proportion of meetings arranged involving a buy-side corporate access desk.
Satisfaction
IROs clearly prefer to arrange meetings directly with investors than to use any other method: 93 percent are satisfied with direct-contact arrangements, with 84 percent giving a high satisfaction rating of 8+/10 and a third giving a perfect score of 10.
Sell-side corporate access is the next most-favored way of arranging meetings, with 79 percent satisfied and 49 percent highly satisfied. All agents involved in arranging investor meetings receive a solid proportion of IROs highly satisfied. The highest level of dissatisfaction is with third parties other than the buy side or sell side, where 11 percent of IRO respondents give a score lower than five.
Satisfaction by region
Arranging meetings directly with investors is the most-favored approach by IR professionals in every region, with 97 percent of European IROs satisfied with this method and at least eight in 10 in every region giving a high satisfaction rating of eight or above. No European or Asian IROs express any dissatisfaction with this method, while just one in 50 North Americans do.
Arranging meetings via sell-side corporate access is the next most-appreciated method by European and Asian IROs, while European IROs give the highest satisfaction rating of any region to using buy-side corporate access. Arranging meetings using both buy-side and sell-side corporate access is least favored by North American IROs.
Satisfaction by cap size
Satisfaction for arranging meetings directly with the investor tends to increase with company size. All mega-cap IRO respondents express satisfaction with this method, while the number giving a perfect satisfaction score of 10 rises from 23 percent of small-cap IROs to 51 percent of mega-caps.
Broadly, satisfaction with all methods of arranging investor meetings increases with cap size, with satisfaction levels for all methods being notably lower among small-cap IROs than IROs at all other cap sizes, except for meetings arranged via another third party, where the lowest satisfaction rating is to be found among large-cap IROs.
Just 4 percent of small-cap IROs give a perfect score of 10 for arranging meetings through buy-side and sell-side corporate access together, through the sell side on its own or through another third party.
Direct contact
The past few years have seen a considerable rise in direct contact between IROs and investors. More than three quarters of IROs are more likely to both reach out to investors and to respond to direct investor contact, with 46 percent saying they are much more likely to respond to investors. Only 4 percent are less likely to reach out to investors and 1 percent less likely to respond to investors.
These findings are consistently strong across every region, with Asian IROs slightly less likely to reach out to investors and North American IROs slightly less likely to respond to investor contact than IROs in other regions. According to company size, small and large-cap IROs are more likely to reach out to investors, while small and mega-cap IROs are more likely to respond to investors.
Corporate access changes
When asked to comment on how their attitude to corporate access has changed over the past few years, the most common issue IROs mention is the increase in direct contact. While this is often seen as a response to the changing nature of corporate access, it is mainly viewed positively by IROs.
A decline in the sell-side role is also frequently mentioned. A few respondents mention a decline in quality but most simply think sell-side corporate access is no longer needed as much as before. While some IROs see no change in corporate access, other issues mentioned include virtual meetings, increased buy-side engagement in general and quality of meetings.
Asia and Europe
North America and rest of world
