At IR magazine’s roundtable in Amsterdam, European IROs are quizzed on how to fend off negative media coverage
Carl Hoyer: We had an unsolicited offer in spring and whenever any news was reported on one of the wires, it was almost instantly picked up by all the others. Our media agency had to call up the journalists and have any inaccuracies corrected. It’s a problem if the unfavorable coverage is based on opinion. If it’s factually incorrect, you have to take action, otherwise it will just keep coming back at you.
Fay Sanders: You make it sound like this has happened to you before.
CH: Yes, a few times. Journalists hate having work corrected, but if it’s factually wrong, you have to get pushy with them to correct it.
FS: Has anyone else here ever experienced negative press reports?
David de la Roz: Last week I did an interview with my CFO and we were asked whether we’d be interested in buying Gatwick from Ferrovial. We replied that the UK was within our country focus, we were interested in infrastructure and that we’d look into it as we would any other opportunity. The headline ran: ‘Albertis CFO says he is going to present an offer for Gatwick’, so I guess we’re going to get our communications department to have this corrected.
Our stock was 10 percent down after that because people don’t want us to be in big projects with additional leverage. We thought we’d been quite clear, so the question is: should you just refuse to talk about potential deals with journalists?
FS: That’s a good question. Does the fact that stories can go wrong lead you to be less open when talking to journalists (present company excepted, of course)?
Hans Vossen: We always prepare an extensive Q&A with every possible question and answer at the ready. Make sure the CFO and CEO have the same story line. And stick to a script.
Bart Gianotten: A few months ago, it was rumored we were interested in buying Hays. As we already have quite an extensive debt load, people were alarmed about that. If you say ‘no comment’, the rumor goes further; it was already driving Hays’ share price up and ours down. So I told one analyst and one journalist that we didn’t have time to consider this because we were fully engaged in buying Vedior and didn’t have the money, and that those who believed the rumor probably also believe Elvis is alive.
I know people think that’s a ridiculous answer, but it kills the rumor instantly, because it goes over all the newswires as ‘Randstad says if you believe it’s buying Hays, Elvis is dead’. Now that gets attention. What I never considered was that the UK takeover panel then contacted us to say: ‘If that’s your statement, you’re not allowed to make a bid for another six months.’ Well, that’s just fine.
To listen to the full discussion on IR in a bear market, please visit www.irmagazine.com.
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