Applebee’s International
Carol DiRaimo
Kansas-based Applebee’s International claimed the grand prix for best overall IR in the small-cap range for the second consecutive year and its IRO, Carol DiRaimo, took home the prize for best IRO in the same range.
DiRaimo won kudos from investors and analysts responding to the Investor Perception Study, US 2005, the research on which the awards are based, for being proactive and knowing the ins and outs of the business. ‘Carol DiRaimo is the Don of restaurant IR representatives. I was an IR person at another casual dining company and she helped me a ton,’ says one interviewee.
‘I put myself in the analysts’/investors’ shoes – they can’t wait a day or more for me to return a call or e-mail,’ says DiRaimo. ‘Being knowledgeable about your company and industry and putting the company’s performance into the proper context is also very important.’
Applebee’s International’s approach to IR is very open and friendly, according to DiRaimo. ‘At our analyst meeting last September, I invited every officer to join us for dinner so attendees could be exposed to the entire team, many of whom they don’t typically have access to,’ she says. ‘We received great feedback for doing this.’
Google
Lise Buyer
All eyes were on Google yet again when it snatched the trophy for best IR for an IPO (winning jointly with Genworth Financial). Lise Buyer, who heads the IR function, offers insight into the investor relations behind the headline-garnering IPO. ‘The media frenzy certainly added to the adventure,’ she recalls. ‘At first, we could do no wrong. By the time the deal was ready to price, we were a lot less popular. There were some frustrating days when, due to quiet period restrictions, we couldn’t respond to even the most wildly inaccurate assertions. But the most critical IR work came when we wrote the S1 and designed the unusual auction structure of our IPO.’
Google’s top priority during the IPO was to offer all investors the same information. ‘We went to great lengths to include the individual investor in the IPO process on an equal footing with the institutions,’ comments Buyer. ‘For instance, we prepared an online ‘meet the management’ video in which our founders, the CEO and CFO walked through the entire roadshow presentation for those we were not able to meet face to face. We are truly grateful that those who voted to give us this award recognized that our goal was simply to offer everyone a level playing field.’
General Electric
Bill Cary
General Electric stole the show at the IR Magazine US Awards this year, taking home four awards including the grand prix for best overall IR in the mega-cap category. The company’s IR strategy aims to ensure a ‘maximum number of investors are provided with the best information possible,’ according to Bill Cary, VP of corporate investor communications. Because GE has a very broad shareholder base, comprising more than 40 percent retail holders, the company’s IR team takes advantage of all resources available to accomplish its goals.
‘The IR team holds over 250 investor meetings a year, with both retail and institutional investors,’ notes Cary. ‘We have expanded dramatically the amount of financial information included in our annual report. The shareowners’ letter in the report is personally written by our CEO, providing investors with a direct connection to Jeff Immelt.’
Creating a link between senior management and shareholders is a priority for GE’s investor relations. Cary says Immelt, GE’s chairman and CEO, is very involved with the company’s IR program. ‘Our CEO uses a process called city swings where he will go to a city, see institutional shareowners and hold a town hall meeting with retail investors for about two hours,’ he explains. ‘He then sees employees and customers in the area. He does these meetings twelve or 13 times a year.’
In the past year, GE enhanced its IR web site and launched a monthly newsletter to keep investors up to date on company highlights and upcoming events. ‘Putting forward new tools such as these and having experienced players, including seasoned professionals like JoAnna Morris and Pauline Berardi, is what will keep this winning team moving forward,’ concludes Cary.
Limited Brands
Tom Katzenmeyer & Amie Preston
It’s not often an investor relations team stands out with analysts and investors alike for two years in a row but Ohio-based Limited Brands’ IROs did just that in 2005.
The fashion company won two prestigious awards this year: the grand prix for best overall IR in the mid-cap category and best IRO in the same range. Tom Katzenmeyer and Amie Preston, the leaders of Limited’s IR team, were the two that garnered the best IRO award for the second year running.
Analysts and investors responding to the perception study have nothing but praise for Preston and Katzenmeyer. ‘Tom Katzenmeyer should be the role model for the rest of IR,’ notes one respondent.
‘Amie is a top-notch investor relations officer,’ adds another interviewee. ‘Always professional and always accessible for even the smallest needs. She is patient and always a pleasure to work with, a perfect role model for all in the investor relations community.’
Katzenmeyer cites strong backing for Limited’s IR program from the senior management team as one of the reasons behind its success. ‘Our program has the complete support and active involvement of the company’s senior management,’ he says. ‘Our annual investor update meeting – an event that encompasses a day and a half of exposure to senior management – and our store tours are widely praised by the investment community.’
Limited’s IR team is grateful for being recognized again by analysts and investors. ‘We appreciate receiving these awards – it’s an incredible honor for both us and Limited Brands,’ notes Preston. Clearly, having strong support from senior management and being recognized by analysts and investors for the second year running is a real IR boost.
Coach
Andrea Shaw Resnick
New York-based fashion retailer Coach also dazzled this year, taking home two awards in the large-cap category including best IRO, which went to its VP of IR, Andrea Shaw Resnick, and the grand prix for best overall IR.
Resnick attributes her victory to all members of the organization. ‘While the IR department may technically be only one person, all Coach employees are dedicated to improving shareholder value because many of them are shareholders themselves and are, in fact, ambassadors for the brand,’ she says.
Resnick also recognizes that without strong senior management support, winning this award would not have been possible. ‘Our management is always accessible – from hosting visits at our corporate offices to store tours, conferences and IR roadshows in key markets around the US, Europe and Japan,’ she points out.
As well as providing a wealth of information on its press releases, Resnick notes that Coach offers detailed guidance during conference calls. ‘[This] allows the investment community to understand the moving parts behind our sales and earnings assumptions,’ she explains.
Verizon
Kevin Tarrant
New York-based Verizon won two awards this year: best use of technology and best IRO in the mega-cap category. Perception study respondents praised the telecom firm’s efforts to deliver information to the Street.
Kevin Tarrant, executive director of IR at Verizon, explains how Verizon’s information delivery technology works. ‘VzMail, which is the name of our e-mail alert platform, allows subscribers to specify the type of information they want to receive and the device they want to receive it on, such as desktop, Blackberry or cell phone,’ he says. ‘These alerts include stock quotes, investor news, SEC filings and [notice of] when company executives will be making webcast presentations to investors.’
One respondent to the perception study also lauded Verizon’s ability to be ‘clear and to the point’ in online presentations. The company uses PowerPoint slides to accompany its webcast calls. ‘We found that including slides along with the audio portion of our presentation is helpful in both guiding people through the discussion and providing the information we want to disclose about a particular subject,’ explains Tarrant.
Oracle
Catherine Evans
Sometimes the true test of how well a company communicates with analysts and investors comes when it’s informing them of a high-profile acquisition – and California-based software manufacturer Oracle is the IR transaction champion of the year. The company took home the award for best M&A IR this year for its work during the PeopleSoft takeover. Perception study respondents commended the company’s ability to keep the market posted on developing issues throughout the acquisition.
‘This was a difficult M&A to follow. The persistence of CEO Larry Ellison paid off but both teams did a good job communicating their views,’ comments one survey respondent.
Doug Kehring, SVP of corporate development at Oracle, explains the firm’s IR strategy during the transaction. ‘During the 18-month acquisition of PeopleSoft, Oracle remained committed to maintaining a clear communication channel with our customers, partners and shareholders,’ he says. ‘We continually reached out to our major stakeholders to convey the unparalleled benefits of the combined companies, including increased innovation, research and development.’
Novartis
Ronen Tamir
Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis took home the award for best IR by a European company in the US market. Its IR program centers on meeting with analysts and investors as much as possible and providing access to management. ‘We focus on having an active dialogue with our investors and address diverse questions from financial to clinical through our team’s broad skill base,’ notes Ronen Tamir, VP of IR and head of Novartis’ North American office.
Over the past year, Novartis’ IR team worked on improving its scientific knowledge to better answer investors’ questions.
‘Many investors and most of our analysts have an advanced degree in science,’ Tamir explains. ‘And a lot of the time our job is to decipher with them the meaning of either our or our competitors’ clinical results and help them understand the Novartis position regarding those results.’
To keep up the good work, Novartis’ IROs will continue to ‘enhance our business acumen, develop a deeper understanding of our clients’ needs, and make sure investors have good access to senior management,’ concludes Tamir.
Ecolab
Michael Monahan
Minnesota-based Ecolab picked up the award for best corporate governance this year, tying with Texas-based Kinder Morgan. According to one perception study respondent, ‘Ecolab is the one model for how a company should handle governance.’
The company has a very detailed governance section on its web site, which includes background information on directors and instructions on how shareholders can contact the board’s lead director and audit committee members. In June 2003 the firm also added a customized application summarizing insider stock transactions to its web site.
‘Communicating our long-standing tradition of good governance to all stakeholders is critical,’ says Michael Monahan, VP of external relations. ‘Ecolab’s unwavering commitment to the highest ethical standards provides a valuable competitive advantage and creates an immensely important foundation of trust with our customers, as well as with investors. For 2004, we expanded our sustainability reporting to more effectively communicate and demonstrate our performance in the communities where our associates work and live.’
Constellation Energy Group
Paul Allen
Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group showed investors it knows how to portray itself well on paper, taking home the award for best annual report in the mid to large-cap category. ‘Constellation Energy does an excellent job of providing a meaningful annual report,’ notes one perception study respondent.
The company’s policy is to produce a document that is as thorough and understandable as possible, according to Paul Allen, senior VP of corporate affairs. This tactic, he explains, gives the firm a competitive edge. ‘The situation that surrounded the energy industry in 2002 and 2003 in particular, where you had the aftermath of the California energy crisis and the Enron bankruptcy, created a lot of suspicion about whether companies in this business were truly disclosing the facts about their business,’ he says. ‘So we believed, and still believe, that being as transparent as possible gives us a competitive edge.’
This year, the company included its entire 10K and a fold-out section explaining each part of the business in plain English in its report.
