The evolving nature of the investor roadshow

A preview of IR magazine’s global survey on roadshow practices

Investor roadshows are a fundamentally important part of any IR schedule. As well as being an essential channel for companies to forge and renew relationships with investors, the roadshow offers IROs the chance to prove their worth to senior management.

Some IROs even have their qualitative performance metrics and remuneration tied to the overall success of the roadshow so ensuring that investors and analysts are adequately briefed prior to the trip is of the utmost importance. This means achieving the ideal balance between existing and prospective investors and making sure that meetings are scheduled only with investors that genuinely have an interest in the area in which your company operates. Ideally, IR will already have met the investor or analyst ahead of a meeting with senior management.

Roadshow scheduling is something every IR department engages in, yet this study reveals a wide range of approaches and differences in the timing and execution dates of the roadshow. Following the quarterly results is still a popular time, but long-term investors are increasingly calling for company visits outside of the reporting season, when they can discuss the long-term numbers without the conversation being dominated by the noise of results.

Research highlights

CEOs at leading Brazilian companies spend the most time meeting investors and CEOs; continental European companies on average spend the least amount of time on IR

CEOs in the US spend on average 19.6 days a year on investor relations

CFOs in leading Latin American firms devote more time to investor relations than CFOs from any other region surveyed

Firms from the US and Brazil overwhelmingly favor January to start roadshow planning: 37 percent of US companies and 46 percent of Brazilian companies think January is a good time to plan when and where to take their senior management teams.

When do you go on roadshows?

For US companies, the most popular months in which to hold roadshows are February, March, May, June, September, November and December

More continental European and UK firms go in September than in any other month

June is the big month for US issuers: 74 percent embark on a roadshow then

50 percent of meetings are IR-only for the most-covered companies

Respondents in continental Europe and the US have the most sell-side analysts covering them on average – 24 and 23, respectively.

The seven most-covered companies

Notes to chart:
These results show that some of the most-covered companies actually spend surprisingly little time with the sell-side analysts who follow them.

The median percentage of time spent with sell-side analysts is 20 percent for all companies surveyed.

The average number of sell-side analysts covering our respondents is 22. The largest number of analysts following any company is 70 and the lowest is four. The company with the greatest number of sell-side analysts covering it spends no time meeting sell-side analysts and conducts approximately 150 one-on-ones per year.

Total average number of days spent on IR (global)

Number of days for CEO: 16.9 days

Number of days for CFO: 26.4 days

Number of days for other senior management: 22.8 days

About this survey
‘Roadshows: who is going where, when and with whom?’ is the definitive guide to roadshow practices at leading IR departments around the world.

Leading companies are those that score highly in our regional IR magazine investor perception studies. These are conducted by independent research firms and inform the IR magazine global awards program – the definitive measure of global IR excellence.

The full research report will be available to professional subscribers to InsideInvestorRelations this September.

About XbInsight
XbInsight is IR magazine’s new global research brand. It provides deeper analysis of the IR function and the components of a successful IR program.

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