Around the world with IR: Catching up with best practices across the globe

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of visiting Singapore and Hong Kong for IR Magazine’s triumphant return to the region. It was the first time since 2019 that my colleagues and I were able to see IROs and others from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and further afield.

It’s always a real pleasure to catch up with our readers around the world and see what is new for them. There was a lot of making up for lost time in Singapore and Hong Kong, two markets where a great deal of change has come through since the pandemic.

There are obvious changes – the impact of the uptake of virtual meetings and other events on investor targeting, roadshows and corporate access was a common theme in both locations – and less obvious ones, like how the macroeconomic forces of the international markets are making retail investors a more crucial part of an IRO’s job.

For investors, it means the very best practitioners are still the ones who stand out in a crowded market. Joshua Lee, portfolio manager at Lombard Odier Group, told us that the way companies communicate with investors has forever changed. ‘Communication is still essential, but the mode is different,’ he added. ‘There’s hybrid and there are more emails as well.’

For me, it’s particularly fascinating to hear about the little nuances of difference in how IR is conducted around the world. My colleagues have explored these differences in depth through a series of deep dives we have put up this month. If you are in need of some festive reading on a flight home, I recommend you jump into them.

There’s a detailed account of how the trend of ‘nearshoring’ – whereby companies return their operations closer to their home – has brought renewed investor interest to Mexican companies, for example. Tim Human finds that Mexico’s issuers are still struggling to gain attention on a global scale, however, while high levels of family ownership and low trading activity mean investor engagement is not always prioritized.

Meanwhile, Garnet Roach has explored why market access remains key for Belgian companies.

She spoke to Wim Allegaert, chairman of the Belgian IR association BelIR, who says Belgian listed companies still have to make a big push to be seen on a level with markets like the UK and Germany.

And in last week’s newsletter I urged you to read Hemma Visavadia’s account of the evolution of IR practices in India, with a new wave of investor interest expected to wash over the country as institutions start to look beyond China for high-growth opportunities.

That brings to a close a month in which we’ve tried to bring you a broad range of IR stories from around the world – something we will strive to continue doing next year. From January, however, we’ll be taking a much more focused approach to our features, with a different topic for each month. More on that in next week’s newsletter.

For now, I hope you’ve got the end of your holiday shopping in sight – and are blessed with an empty inbox and a restful week in the run-up to relaxing properly.