European companies are leading the return to in-person roadshows as the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions on travel are lifted. They are closely followed by North American companies, though lingering restrictions in Asia have led to a slower return to the road by firms there.
The new IR Magazine Global Roadshow Report 2022 finds that as of Q3 2022, 65 percent of European companies had returned to the road. While North American companies are not far behind with 58 percent resuming in-person roadshows, just a quarter of Asian companies went on the road in this time.
At the height of the pandemic, from Q3 2020 to Q3 2021, just 7 percent of companies globally went on any in-person roadshows. Prior to the pandemic, 98 percent of European firms held in-person roadshows, compared with 95 percent of North American firms and 83 percent of Asian companies.
In the return to in-person roadshows, companies have largely stuck to travel within their region. Resumption of transatlantic travel tends to be one-way: while 38 percent of all European companies have visited New York in the year to Q3 2022, just 13 percent of North American companies have traveled to London.
The small number of Asian companies that have resumed in-person roadshows have been very active, averaging 5.5 each in this time and typically spending a total of just over eight days on the road. In contrast, the 58 percent of North American companies engaging in-person roadshows have been on just two such roadshows each and spent an average of 3.6 days.
The high activity among those that do go on the road results in the same ratio of in-person to virtual roadshows for Asian companies as is found in other regions. Despite only a quarter of Asian companies going on the road, a third of all roadshows held by Asian companies were in person in the year to Q3 2022, the same proportion as held by European companies and just 1 percentage-point less than North American companies.
Differences in cap size activity
According to company size, larger companies have led the return to the road. A minority of small and mid-cap companies have been on in-person roadshows in the year to Q3 2022. During the same period, 63 percent of large-cap companies and three quarters of mega-cap companies have been out on the road.
Mega-cap companies are also more active when they do go on the road. The 45 percent of small-cap companies that went on in-person roadshows held an average of 2.4 roadshows, typically spending 5.3 days in total. The three quarters of mega-cap companies going on the road held an average of five and a half roadshows and spent 10.6 days, double the time spent by the small caps.
As mega-cap companies are more likely to go on the road, and are more active when they do so, they have used significantly more brokers for in-person roadshows than companies of other sizes. In the year to Q3 2022, the average mega-cap company used more than three times as many brokers for in-person roadshows as small and mid-cap companies and twice as many as large caps.
The 13th annual Global Roadshow Report features in the winter 2022 edition of IR Magazine. It is also available free to download or view online.
Click to read IR Magazine Global Roadshow Report 2022
