Monday, April 20
I’m in at work early at our offices in Baker Street feeling refreshed and rejuvenated after a good weekend. The week ahead will see me dashing in and out of the office but all of it is based in London, which will hopefully give me a chance to get to grips with some of the planning work so necessary to the smooth running of the IR function.
In the morning I start by drafting the quarterly business report that will go out with the chairman’s annual general meeting statement in ten days time. The business report isn’t as detailed as a US quarterly trading report; indeed most other UK banks don’t even produce them. Still it gives an update in the periods in between year-end and half-year results so is useful in giving us something concrete to talk about with the financial community. Much of the drafting exercise consists of drilling down throughout the business areas to update on new developments and pleading with our in-house finance team to supply the numbers to back up my narrative. Once completed, the draft is circulated to executive directors for comments.
In the afternoon I’m out in the car with our new chief executive, Ian Harley, to visit two of our larger institutional investors in the City. Ian took over as CEO at the start of March so has had some seven weeks to adapt to the new role. Not that he needed to get used to the business – he’s been with the company for around 22 years, most recently as finance director. It’s because of the recent move from that position that he’s out attending meetings with me. In the future, I expect to spend more time in one-on-ones with Mark Pain, our newly-appointed finance director. For the time being, Ian is speaking with old acquaintances at most of the institutions and handles the meetings well in the face of challenging questions about the company’s strategic intent under his stewardship.
Tuesday, April 21
I’m back at Baker Street for an early start preparing for a whole day visiting institutions in the City and West End. I meet up with Ian again and we’re out before 8 am to avoid the worst of the morning traffic. We plan to see five institutions during the day, which is a fairly normal schedule. Any less and it’s not worth a day of the senior executive’s time; any more and you don’t get the time to discuss subjects in enough detail. These meetings were planned about three months in advance to ensure Ian’s availability and the fund managers’ time. For longer rounds of meetings we need to start planning nearly a year ahead by blocking out chunks of the senior executive’s diaries.
London’s analysts and fund managers have become a lot more numbers-driven and analytical in the three or so years I’ve been in IR – more like those in the US. Most meetings now have a very strong structure and may focus on anywhere from 15 to 40 key areas the institution wants clarified.
At present, questions are largely on costs associated with the Year 2000 problem and the likely impact of the euro on our business. They want to know our strategy; how we’re going to be viewing the market in five to ten years time. They’re more focused on value and what’s driving that value. Our audience demands an even wider knowledge base from an IR perspective than they did a few years ago which in turn requires a greater level of constant education about the business.
With the morning meetings over, we find 15 minutes to grab a coffee at the Inn on the Park on our way to another meeting. It’s vital for me to counter a very low blood sugar level. London traffic means you want to make your way to meetings as quickly as possible and take your chance for a snack when you can. Indeed, later in the day as we drive through Parliament Square, we’re caught by tourists who stare in wonder at what they think are government ministers eating a packed lunch in the back seat of the car. All in the spirit of reducing the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement one presumes.
Wednesday, April 22
We’re announcing the disposal of our Spanish operation today so I’m in the office by 7.15 am ready to answer questions when the release goes out at 7.30. It’s a small part of the business but deemed price sensitive so I need to be available.
Sending out the news at this time is vital as most analysts will be at their desks by now and will want to brief their sales teams before the market opens at 8.30. I’d usually expect most telephone calls between 7.30 and 8.00 to clarify any points. This time there’s little to be explained to the market but I ring the house brokers as a matter of course.
I’m out visiting four institutions again until mid-afternoon and then it’s back to the office to redraft the spring business report which has arrived back with comments from the executive directors. I try to word it to give a flavor of the issues surrounding our business as well as just an update on our key markets.
I’m also aware that a few days largely taken up with meetings and drafting the report mean that other preparatory work and background reading is now piling up around the office begging for my attention.
Thursday, April 23
In the morning I get to grips with reviewing the target list for future US institutional visits. I get advice from our brokers and combine it with our own database and my own knowledge to update from previous visits. I’m aiming at eventually drawing up a schedule that will include a good balance of current and potential shareholders, noting who’s underweight in our stock relative to our peers and keeping a check on holdings.
The work on the target list and skim reading a number of brokers’ reports keeps me longer than I intended so it’s a mad dash across to the City for a lunch with fellow IR managers at the UK banks. We hold these get-togethers every four months or so and they’re incredibly useful to swap stories about how we’re all approaching the IR function within our own organizations. We’re all competitors so we stick to non-contentious business issues associated with the professional side of our role – for instance, who’s using consultants and what for, what’s going on in the market, gossip about analysts and so on. There’s a useful discussion on current themes including the level of reporting, scrip dividends, use of the internet and meeting formats. We also review mundane but crucial issues such as who is reporting and when – to avoid clashes.
The group of banking IROs has grown recently due to the demutualizations last year. Several of these new listed companies’ IROs are completely new to the profession so hopefully those of us who have been in IR for some time have something to offer them while, in return, drawing on their fresh ideas.
Who says that the days of long lunches are over? Having arrived late, the lunch ends late (at around 3.45 pm) and I’m back to the office for a review of the possible questions and answers at next week’s annual general meeting with the relevant executives. This is conducted in advance of a rehearsal before the actual event and helps bring up extra topic areas which might require more attention.
Friday, April 24
Finally, a full day in the office. Now is the chance to catch up on planning. I start by looking at the positioning of the interim results in July and then go on to plan what I currently need from the senior executives’ schedules for the rest of the year. This will take in trips to Spain, Ireland, Scotland, the US, another round of UK institutional visits in the autumn and several presentations.
With that finished I start work on drafting my monthly board report. The report goes in with the board papers and explains things such as our share price movements relative to peers, and changes in analysts’ forecasts and recommendations. I detail the gap between market forecasts and our own as they stand and provide an analysis of the share register, key market developments and an update on IR activity.
The report is split into two sections: first up comes a single page in which I try to summarize all the key data and information in bullet point and graphics form; next is the in-depth text of the report so that executives can refer to points in more detail when necessary. It’s an attempt to provide all the information they need in an easily accessible format.
In the afternoon I review the speech that the chief executive is giving at the Goldman Sachs conference in Barcelona in a fortnight’s time. The CEO averages four or five large conference presentations for IR purposes each year and it’s crucial that they hit the right note.
As the week draws to a close I spend the last hour or so reviewing our use of teleconferencing and looking at possible ways to increase the efficiency of our targeting effort. I try to take a step back from the function and look at it almost from a sales perspective, which hopefully reflects some of the changes in the stockbroking world. The reality is that the market wants more transparency and more reporting yet doesn’t want to be inundated with unnecessary information. It’s a constant battle to get the balance right.
The weekend beckons at 6 pm and I’m looking forward to relaxing in preparation for another busy week.
