The challenge of accession to the European Union will dominate Investor Relations magazine’s first conference for Central and Eastern Europe. The Hyatt Regency Budapest will be the setting for the milestone event on September 17-18. Hungary’s minister of finance, Csaba Laszlo, will open the first day’s program, giving insight into the changing political and corporate landscape leading up to the next wave of accession to the EU in 2004. He will also explain the opportunities this move will create for companies across the region.
Furthermore, top officials from the Budapest, Warsaw, Prague, Bucharest, Ljublijana, and Bratislava stock exchanges will tell how domestic markets are preparing themselves for Western European competition. They will also discuss future changes in the regulatory environment and the new level of disclosure and transparency that companies will have to adopt to catch up with their European peers.
Other panels will show how investor relations officers are dealing with all these new demands and whether they are ready to meet developing challenges. Szabolcs Czenthe, IR director at Hungarian telecommunication company Matav, reckons Central and Eastern European IROs are still quite amateur. ‘The number of professional IROs is still low, and sometimes it’s the CEO who takes on the IRO role,’ he says, adding, ‘IR practitioners are still undervalued and they need to become more popular.’ He also suggests there’s a need to create an investor relations society in the region.
He foresees financial scandals on the pattern of Enron and WorldCom emerging soon from some Eastern European companies. Only after their discovery, ‘markets will settle down and clear up.’
As icing on the cake, the first Investor Relations Magazine Central & Eastern Europe Awards will honor the best IROs of the region in a presentation on September 17.
Aira gathering
A few days later, IROs, CEOs, consultants and others will gather in Sydney to discuss how the Enron and WorldCom scandals, as well as domestic corporate collapses like Ansett, HIH and One.Tel, have affected corporate governance and IR in Australia.
The second annual conference of the Australasian Investor Relations Association (Aira) and Investor Relations magazine, to be held in Sydney, September 25-26, will identify trends arising in the US as a consequence of the recent corporate blow-ups, and discuss how they may be picked up in Australia.
‘At the moment there is nothing in the pipeline in terms of changes in legislation, but we expect the court will become more strict and impose larger compensation penalties on those companies that commit fraud,’ says Joanne Rees, consultant at the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (Asic).
She says this tougher stance should help to restore the confidence of investors, who ‘are really panicking and wondering where stock markets are going as a result of [corporate frauds.]’
The conference will be the ideal opportunity to focus on the role of IR as such scandals emerge and consider what they can do in terms of damage control. Rees advances the idea that IR practitioners must take the lead in calming investors who are wondering whether buy and hold strategies are still valid.
Stuart Thomas, partner at law firm Gilbert & Tobin, explains that Australian IROs don’t have a compliance function, which is the realm of CEOs and corporate secretaries. ‘IR’s role is basically marketing,’ he says, adding that ‘as a result of these financial scandals IROs may get greater prominence and importance and companies may even create a separate office for them [in cases where IR is currently under the corporate communications department].’
The evening of September 25 will also be the occasion of the third annual Investor Relations Magazine Australia Awards, rewarding the best companies in a range of categories.
Upcoming Investor Relations magazine events
IR for a Global Market – South Africa
August 20-21, Sandton Sun & Towers Inter-Continental, Johannesburg, including the first
Investor Relations Magazine South Africa Awards
Investor Relations for Central & Eastern Europe
17-18 September, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Budapest
The 2nd Annual Aira Conference & Awards
in association with Investor Relations magazine September 25-26, The Westin, Sydney
The Amsterdam Conference & Eurozone Awards
October 14, Okura Hotel, Amsterdam
The Asian Investor Relations Summit & Awards
November 19, Hong Kong
For further details of the programs, check out www.IRontheNet.com. If you would like to get involved, e-mail [email protected]
