Germany has long produced some of the best IR teams in Europe – and 2017 is no exception. The country provides one in five constituents of the latest IR Magazine Euro Top 100, which is based on a regional survey of investors and analysts.
While Germany is down two places on last year, it still comfortably outperforms the UK, which comes second with 13 companies in the ranking. Indeed, British companies have struggled to maintain their position in the Euro Top 100: two years ago, they tied with German companies for places but saw their presence decrease dramatically last year.
The ranking is based on the views of portfolio managers, buy-side analysts and sell-side analysts who took part in a survey on the quality of investor relations at European companies.
The respondents were asked to mark companies and individuals across a range of categories, such as best IRO and best investor meetings. The scores from the different categories were then added together to create the positions for the Euro Top 100.
France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands have held a roughly consistent number of places over the last two years, while Denmark has seen its constituents double from three to six.
Further down the ranking, Irish companies cemented their return following a blank year in 2015 and two places in 2016 by picking up three places this time round. Ireland also provided one of the most remarkable individual company performances in the research: Ryanair, the budget airline, climbed 229 places to take 51st in the 2017 rankings.
The company appointed Shane O’Toole as its new head of IR in February 2016. While O’Toole is too modest to take credit for the rise, he offers some insight into his IR approach during an interview for the IR Magazine Investor Perception Study – Europe 2017, which contains the findings of the investment community survey.
‘We always make sure we respond quickly to queries and make management available,’ says O’Toole, noting that around 20 members of management take part in IR activities.
Click here for more information about the IR Magazine Investor Perception Study – Europe 2017.
