1. Focus
  2. Investor Access

Meetings between companies and investors are a long-standing part of the investment process. The importance of this has not changed, but the mechanism is being disrupted dramatically following a series of regulatory changes, most recently MiFID II. The result is that investors are seeing fewer companies and companies are seeing fewer investors. We provide a new, more proactive approach.

WE HELP OUR CLIENTS ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN RELATIONSHIPS WITH HIGH-QUALITY INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS

Meeting with the “right” investors is of paramount importance. There are over 15,000 institutional investors in the U.S., each with its own investment strategy, methodology and performance benchmark. As an unconflicted advocate, we are able to identify and engage with a large audience of potential investors on behalf of corporates to achieve successful outcomes. We help our clients tell their stories and maintain dialogue with decision makers at long term focused institutional asset managers, directly on our clients’ behalf. This ensures that our clients are continuously marketing their equity and debt stories effectively and to the right decision makers.

TargetingTargeting

The logical starting point for an investor outreach program is a targeting process. Targeting has become a bit of a commoditized service and the output is only as useful as the thought process that went into it.
 
For this reason, we built our own proprietary targeting database instead of buying an off the shelf system because data in the absence of informed judgement and experience has little value. We use our homegrown systems to parse and analyze data and then overlay judgement and our knowledge of investor behavior to inform next steps. Importantly, we extend beyond our clients’ natural peer group to identify companies with similar financial characteristics and shared investment themes. This is done to avoid focusing on sector specialists and to be able to identify prospective investors within more generalist mandates.
 
Our analysis yields a segmented ranked list of the most relevant investors based on numerous objective factors, including portfolio composition, turnover, and the financial characteristics of securities recently purchased (or sold).
 
Targeting, however, is not an end unto itself. It’s just a starting point.

Targeting Process

  • 01EXPLORE COMP. GROUP

    • The “usual suspects”
    • Historical owners
    • Recent buyers & sellers

  • 02CREATE “NEW" COMPS

    • Adjacent industries
    • Similar financial profiles
    • Exclusion criteria
    • Internal Ranking

  • 03ANALYZE SHAREHOLDERS

    • Segment universe of shareholders
    • Apply exclusion criteria
    • Review recent purchasing activity
    • Quantitatively rank

  • 04APPLY JUDGEMENT AND EXPERIENCE

    • Market intelligence
    • Geographic approach
    • Knowledge of gatekeepers
    • Senior level connectivity

Outreach & Investor Access

Our ability to develop lasting relationships with decision markers on behalf of our clients helps to create favorable outcomes.

The results of our outreach efforts are based on decades of institutional sales experience and our ability to leverage a broad network of institutional investors. As a dedicated advocate for our clients, we are immune from the impact of decreasing buy-side budgets or conflicting revenue sources that may not be aligned with our clients’ interests.

We primarily perform outreach on our clients’ behalf through non-deal roadshows (virtual or otherwise), supplemented with group events like investor days when appropriate.

Our goal is to facilitate interactions between our clients and decision makers at suitable long-only institutions. Although we usually deliver full schedules, we prioritize quality over quantity. Investor marketing requires a time commitment, and it’s our job to make sure our client is allocating its marketing resources as effectively as possible.

This means ensuring that not only are we scheduling the right meetings, but we are ensuring that each meeting participant is adequately informed about the other prior to the start of the meeting. It also means that we need to extract as much value from each meeting through detailed feedback reports and after-action planning.

Feedback & Ongoing EngagementFeedback & Ongoing Engagement

Following each series of investor meetings we arrange,  we deliver comprehensive a feedback report to our clients that incorporates both verbatim comments provided by institutional investors as well as our interpretation of their views. We then work with our clients to augment marketing materials and key messaging to proactively address investor concerns. Our feedback also includes an appraisal of the level of resources that should be devoted on an ongoing basis to maintain a dialogue with a given investor.

Retaining a strong shareholder base is as important as building one, and developing a healthy feedback loop with current shareholders is an important element of a successful investor retention program. Through consistent messaging and communication with existing shareholders, we help our clients gain a strong understanding of and proactively address key shareholder concerns. This is also a form of active shareholder management that can be a very effective vaccine against activist shareholders.

Institutional investors often meet with companies several times before making an investment decision. Staying in front of investor targets is therefore essential. We support our clients in this effort by staying engaged long after the meeting is over, keeping investors aware of important client announcements and earnings reports, gauging sentiment, and consistently facilitating follow-up meetings and phone calls.