The pandemic has accelerated the use of some technologies, increased our reliance on others and introduced us to new tools. Garnet Roach looks at what’s out there and hears from IROs about the tech they can’t live without
Would you choose a piece of IR tech over a new team member? At least one of the IR professionals we spoke to for this feature says that if she had to choose, her targeting tech would ‘100 percent’ win out. In a time of ever-greater demands on IR teams and continually strained budgets, that is some testament to the technology.
But IR tech is so much more than it used to be. Powered by algorithms and designed to analyze data in a way a human never could, new tools are making ever-greater promises.
Then there’s the Covid-19 pandemic. The last two years or so have had a huge impact on technology and investor relations. On the one hand, existing tools that were already used by some became IR essentials for the roadshow or AGM that had to go from in-person to virtual overnight. At the same time, service providers were working to offer solutions to problems we only just realized we had, while apparently millions of new retail investors were entering the market – and engaging – through new platforms designed to ‘democratize’ everything from trading to the IPO process and corporate access.
So what new tools are being used by – or impacting – investor relations? While many of the new tools we’ve been writing about at IR Magazine are targeted at the growing retail audience, they also offer wider IR uses – though they aren’t necessarily well established in the IR community yet.
From new ways to communicate – through Clubhouse or Say, for example – to platforms such as Investor Meet Company or Tumelo looking to get retail investors engaging with companies either more broadly or on specific issues like ESG, or even companies like UBS-backed Lynk adding AI to the investment research process, there’s a lot that IR professionals should have on their radar. That remains true even if they don't plan to use these tools, or the IR team doesn't have a direct use for them.
The IR community is still a group of generally slow adopters, however, and the technologies professionals are most keen to talk about – and offer glowing recommendations on – are not necessarily the new kids on the block that haven’t been put through their paces yet but, rather, the technologies they have come to increasingly rely on in recent years.
‘When I joined Altus Group, the first thing I did was set up my tech platform,’ says Camilla Bartosiewicz, vice president of IR at the real estate software provider. ’I felt like I was flying blind without it.
‘If information is the new currency of business, then these tech platforms give us access to information that would otherwise be very challenging – if not impossible – to gather for free through the traditional ‘relationship’ channels and/or multiple sources.’
Clearly a strong advocate of tech for investor relations where it offers real benefit, Bartosiewicz says: ‘If I had to choose between an additional IR hire and my tech tools, I would 100 percent choose the technology.’
She describes IHS Markit’s IR solution, BD Corporate, as her ‘go-to’ investor targeting tool. Citing its ‘user-friendly interface, reliable data, good customer service (particularly as I expanded our engagement to also include a surveillance program) and the combined access to FactSet’ as the deciding factors in choosing IHS Markit, Bartosiewicz explains that she first began using the tool in a bid to enhance non-deal roadshows and also make more informed decisions on how management’s time is used.
‘Historically, IROs were more dependent on the sell side, whereas today targeting tools have enabled me to be more proactive in engaging with my targets and to even set up my own roadshows,’ she explains. ‘This is especially compelling in the context of Mifid II and the buy side’s waning dependence on the sell side for corporate access.’
Bartosiewicz describes targeting technology as already shifting from a ‘nice to have’ to something that is increasingly ‘mission-critical’ for IROs and says that as the technology evolves and becomes more predictive, ‘it will be a game changer’.
When asked what benefits IHS Markit’s IR solution offers, Bartosiewicz says it is simply improved efficiency and ‘a substantially improved return-on-investment on our marketing time.’ So not especially lofty stuff but hugely valuable to every IR team.
'Whereas historically it was more about maximizing the quantity of investor meetings, today we’ve seen the benefits of focusing on the quality,’ she continues. ‘It’s about meeting with the right investors – the ones that will be more aligned with our strategy, and that are fundamentally more likely to invest. I put a lot of effort into attracting and cultivating relationships with the ‘right’ shareholders that will come along as partners for Altus Group’s growth journey.’
The company is owned by what Bartosiewicz describes as a ‘premier shareholder base’: more than 90 percent institutionally held by predominately long-term-focused, growth-oriented and geographically diverse investors: ‘Our shareholders know our firm well, providing for very productive conversations and more common themes among expectations.’ She adds that these traits don’t just sound good – they have helped the company withstand market volatility.
Bartosiewicz is clearly a serious champion of tecnology for targeting, but says she still finds ‘a lot of value’ in the sell side.
‘Despite the rising popularity of non-brokered roadshows, the sell side will always play an important role and should be leveraged by issuers,’ she says.
Camilla Bartosiewicz, Altus Group
‘Our primary goal [in using Lumi] was to deliver a safe and legally compliant virtual AGM, one where shareholders could just as easily be seen and heard as at a physical meeting,’ says Mark Jenkins, company secretary at Halma, a FTSE-listed group of companies that produce life-saving technologies. ‘Lumi enabled us to register delegates and provide live and secure polling, as well as Q&As, allowing us to create a forum for shareholder engagement virtually.’
Although Halma only began using Lumi in the summer of 2021, with Jenkins expecting to move back to physical AGMs and in-person engagement ‘as we emerge from the pandemic and life begins returning to normal’, he says Halma will still use Lumi ‘to ensure our AGMs evolve and provide even greater shareholder engagement.’
Jenkins sees Lumi as a solution for AGMs and ‘complex meetings’ and cites the tool’s Q&A management service as a standout feature, saying that it allows shareholders to put their questions to the board virtually, while [the company] retains control of the meeting and maximizes debate time.
‘This makes accessing questions easy for directors and makes voting easy for shareholders, which provides both parties with the best experience at an annual meeting,’ he says.
When the IR team at Sainsbury’s first started using ingage in 2018, the primary goal was to conduct more direct activity – ‘particularly roadshow activity’ – with investors in an efficient way, explains Susie Lynskey, IR manager at the UK supermarket giant.
‘We were aware that, increasingly, investors wanted more direct engagement from corporates [and], as there had been a reduction in broker involvement, the IR team stepped up to take on more responsibility,’ she says. ‘We needed a solution to support our internal resourcing.’
Since then, the IR team’s use of the platform has grown as ingage has broadened its offering.
‘One element of ingage we have been pleasantly surprised by is the success we have had in using the feedback functionality,’ continues Lynskey. The platform offers the option to send a feedback request after a meeting and she says the responses Sainsbury’s has received from investors through the function ‘have been high quality and the layout allows for real candor.’
Being able to download the feedback in Excel or PDF allows ‘for really useful insight’, with the ability to track trends over time, she adds.
Lynskey’s glowing review of the ingage tech – and also the people at the firm, who she says offer a personalized approach – covers a range of tools that her team has increasingly made use of, including the ‘build your own roadshow’ functionality.
'[That functionality] has allowed us to reduce our reliance on brokers, and we’ve been really pleased with the flexibility the tool offers us and the greater control we’ve had over our planning,’ she notes. ‘It has made scheduling complicated roadshow timetables very straightforward.’
While Lynskey says the team is moving toward using all elements of the platform, there are still IR tasks where a combined approach works best. She cites investor targeting as one such example.
‘While there is good functionality in ingage to pool shareholder register analysis and meeting history, investor targeting is quite a subjective area and we use a lot of input from our advisers in building a quality target list,' she says. 'But we do maintain that target list in ingage and track engagement with those target investors.’
Dennis Walsh, Pacaso
When he first learned about AlphaSense at NIRI’s 2016 conference, Dennis Walsh, head of investor relations at Pacaso, says the ‘research capabilities for analyst notes and SEC filings were like nothing I had seen before’.
At the time Walsh was at Zillow and says ‘competitive intelligence was part of the IR function’. He describes AlphaSense as ‘supercharging’ the company’s competitive intelligence efforts, adding that it allowed the team to discover information about Zillow’s peers and industry that they likely wouldn’t have come across otherwise.
Zillow’s use of AlphaSense soon evolved, Walsh says, and the firm found it ‘incredibly useful’ in its messaging. ‘When we had a new event to disclose via a news release, an SEC filing or an earnings conference call, we leveraged AlphaSense to see how other companies had handled and messaged a similar situation,’ he explains. ‘Over time, our legal and SEC reporting teams recognized the power of AlphaSense, so they too became users.’
Walsh has held two roles since Zillow and joined his current firm in November 2021. But where he goes, so too does his AlphaSense account.
‘We set up various keyword searches that uncover research, articles, filings, transcripts and so forth that power our competitive intelligence initiatives,’ he says. From that, the IR team compiles a weekly report on its findings related to peer news and developments that Walsh says benefits ‘several functions and can be used to inform business decisions’.
So is there a trick to making AlphaSense a success? Walsh says it’s all about figuring out the right combination of search terms. Once you’ve got that, the platform really does the work for you, he says.
‘Each day you will have a wealth of valuable documents to review,’ he adds. ‘And by sharing some of your findings with other functions, you can truly elevate the investor relations function within your organization.’
As well as evangelizing about the tech they love, our IR commentators shared some other tools and platforms they’re also using for IR.
In addition to using ingage for corporate access, Susie Lynskey, IR manager at Sainsbury’s, says the team uses Vuma for compiling consensus. And while Camilla Bartosiewicz, vice president of IR at Altus Group, raves about IHS Markit’s BD Corporate product, she also says she’s ‘hooked on FactSet for market data’ and loves AlphaSense, which she describes as the Google of business information.
Dennis Walsh, the head of investor relations at Pacaso who talks in depth about his use of AlphaSense in the main article, says he also uses Nasdaq IR Insight. But he adds: ‘Don’t underestimate the power of Google Alerts. With the right combination of keywords, that will keep you up to date on all of the news your executive team and investors will be asking about.’
