Creating a fit for purpose IR function – depending on your company and the resources available,

Sarah Russel Spray, previous Head of IR, A.P. Møller Mærsk, Bilal Aziz, Vice President, Head of IR & Treasury, Pandora and Michael Nass Nielsen, Head of IR at Svitzer discussed what is “must have”, what is “nice to have” and what will make investors and analysts understand your business and interact with you. How do you create a fit for purpose IR function on the ressources available to you?

Michael Nass: “You need to really understand your customer base or your shareholders and their needs and also what kind of dialogue it is that you actually need to have with them and how they want to engage. Some investors like to speak several times a week, for some it’s enough just to have an update on a biannual basis. […] It’s also super helpful to actually have a conversation with your IR peers, because many of them have probably in some way or the other been in similar situations. Over time, I’ve understood the importance of building that network even more, because people are typically willing to be a sparring partner and also share ideas, suggestions. Don’t think you can fix it all yourself.”

Sarah Russel Spray on learnings from switching from the sell side to the buy side: “I had this kind of impression that because I was a sort of secret agent representing the internal thoughts of the investors in the sell side and knowing what motivates them, knowing the things that would make them flip their opinions, of that the management actually would be interested in hearing this. And my experience throughout my career has been that when you come with capital market information that is different from what the management wants to hear or what the management expects to hear and bringing stuff from the U.S. that was going to hit Europe maybe in six months, they actually don’t want to know. They want to actually continue in their thought pattern of how they think the business should be done. And as an IR, it’s not your role. You should definitely step back and just tell the story the way they want it to be told.

Bilal Aziz on what makes a good IR person: “Understanding and being competent in the financials, because in some cases, you will be seen as a voice for the CFO. So if you’re seen as a quasi-CFO in independent meetings, your credibility is immediately enhanced if you understand the ins and outs of all the financial detail and that clearly helps your own credibility and allows investors to meet you in comfort and say “okay, I don’t need the CEO or CFO in their meeting” so that certainly helps. The second thing would be understanding which KPIs drive the most value for the business in terms of the share price. There’s so much disclosure for all the companies and there’s so much material that comes up and all of them do matter but four or five ultimately drive the share price, so a thorough understanding of that’s the number that the market is worried or cared about for this specific time is important.”

Slido question 6: With all your experience now .- what should be the key focus for an IRO?

Having a clear equity story: 43 percent

Stakeholder management both internally and externally: 29 percent

Having access to senior management: 19 percent

Having clear processes so you can get the information you need: 10 percent

Link to on-demand streaming of the session