Recent articles

Winning research: CFA competition brings exposure to A10 Networks

May 11, 2021

Each year CFA Institute holds a global research report competition, where companies present to teams of students from competing universities across dozens of countries. This year, for the first time, the company presenting in New York was a small-cap firm: cloud software company A10 Networks. The popular narrative around small-cap companies is that it can be hard to get your name out there, with analyst coverage often difficult to generate. For A10, the CFA competit...

Corporate access

Most investor events to remain virtual this year, study finds

May 10, 2021

Ben Ashwell

Most investor events to remain virtual this year, study finds

While some investment banks are preparing for a tentative return to small in-person events in the coming months, the majority of investor events will likely continue to be held virtually this year, according to a study conducted by OpenExchange. Three out of four investor conferences during the second half of 2021 will be entirely virtual, according to OpenExchange’s survey of 139 decision-makers at 30 financial institutions. As of May 10, Barclays is the b...

Corporate access

Israeli companies intensify IR during pandemic but could do more

May 10, 2021

Tim Human

Israeli companies intensify IR during pandemic but could do more

Israeli companies have upped their engagement with investors during the Covid-19 pandemic, but they still take part in fewer conferences, roadshows and investor days than global peers, according to a new study. The research, conducted by IHS Markit in partnership with the Israeli Investor Relations Forum (IIRF), polled 28 IR professionals during January and F...

Careers

Sun Life Financial appoints Yaniv Bitton as head of investor relations & capital markets

May 10, 2021

Tim Human

Sun Life Financial appoints Yaniv Bitton as head of investor relations & capital markets

Sun Life Financial, the Canadian financial services firm, has promoted Yaniv Bitton to the position of vice president and head of investor relations & capital markets. Most recently, Bitton held the role of vice president of IR and has worked at Sun Life since 2016. He continues to report to Leigh Chalmers, the company’s head of corporate finance and capital management. In the new role, Bitton serves ‘as the primary spokesperson to the investment comm...

ESG

Shareholders in German firm back ‘green dividend’ to tackle climate change

May 07, 2021

Tim Human

Shareholders in German firm back ‘green dividend’ to tackle climate change

Shareholders of alstria office REIT have backed what is thought to be the first ‘green dividend’, where a small portion of the payout is directed to decarbonization projects that contribute little to shareholder value. At the property investor’s AGM this week, 85.2 percent of votes were cast in favor of the proposal that will see €1.78 mn ($2.15 mn) directed toward two initiatives focused on renewable energy and carbon capture. The company says it wou...

Buy side

The week in investor relations: Pay revolt at Rio Tinto, EU clamps down on foreign subsidies and skepticism over climate pledges

May 07, 2021

Tim Human

The week in investor relations: Pay revolt at Rio Tinto, EU clamps down on foreign subsidies and skepticism over climate pledges

– Rio Tinto suffered a shareholder revolt with 61 percent of votes cast against the miner’s executive compensation package at the AGM, reported the BBC. The rebellion follows the destruction of sacred rock in Western Australia last year, which led to several executives, including former CEO Jean-Sébastien Jacques Jacques, stepping down. ‘The board acknowledges that the executive pay outcomes ...

Shareholder targeting & ID

UK retail investors warm to domestic companies in March

May 06, 2021

Tim Human

UK retail investors warm to domestic companies in March

UK retail investors are feeling more confident about the prospects for domestic companies amid a rapid vaccine roll-out and improving economic conditions, according to new data. In March the country’s savers invested a net £472 mn ($655 mn) into funds in the UK All Companies sector, says the Investment Association (AI) – the fir...

Shareholder targeting & ID

Shareholder monitoring: How the right ownership data can accelerate company growth

May 05, 2021

David Whyte

Shareholder monitoring: How the right ownership data can accelerate company growth

Discerning ownership for public companies is a complex and often frustrating matter for issuers and advisers alike. Combing through regulatory filings is cumbersome, prone to error and can often lead to data comparisons that are akin to comparing apples with oranges. There are many financial data platforms available to do the work for you but, even if the publicly reported data is perfect and timely, issuers are still going to miss a significant portion of their shareholde...

Careers

CANPACK names Lorenzo Ruffatti as its first investor relations manager

May 05, 2021

Tim Human

CANPACK names Lorenzo Ruffatti as its first investor relations manager

CANPACK, the Poland-based manufacturer of packaging for the food industry, has appointed Lorenzo Ruffatti to the newly created position of investor relations manager. He reports to CFO Marius Croitoru and will focus on engagement with bond holders and the wider investment community, according to a company statement. Ruffatti has more than 20 years of experience in the capital markets. Most recently, he worked at Brokertec, an electronic trading platform for f...

Case studies

No evidence for ESG alpha, claims new study

May 04, 2021

Garnet Roach

No evidence for ESG alpha, claims new study

‘Claims of positive alpha in popular industry publications are not valid because the analysis underlying these claims is flawed,’ state the authors of a new study looking at whether ESG metrics deliver outperformance as is widely claimed. New academic research from Scientific Beta, a ‘smart beta’ index provider, and published in the paper ...

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