Irish IR is a truly international discipline, with some IROs spending more time abroad than in their domestic market. Foreign investment in Irish equities has gone up considerably over the last decade with around 30 percent of Irish equity now held by US institutions, for instance.
Liam O’Mahony, CEO of construction and building materials company CRH, understands the value of face time with shareholders. ‘In 2004, I spent about 7.5 percent of my time on the road in relation to IR split between London, North America (New York, Boston, Toronto, Philadelphia), mainland Europe (Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Milan, Stockholm) and Dublin,’ he reports. This year CRH won best use of the internet for IR, best annual report and other corporate literature and best corporate governance at the IR Magazine Ireland Awards.
‘We keep our investors briefed on our governance efforts, and look for feedback, which is generally positive and useful,’ says O’Mahony. ‘[The value of good governance] is hard to quantify, but we believe it strongly underpins international analyst and investor confidence in CRH.’ The company’s board follows best practice in terms of structure. It has a majority of non-executive directors and the chairman is non-executive; also, six out of the current 14 board members are non-Irish.
Anglo Irish Bank’s management team commits to meeting with shareholders at least twice a year and goes on the road after each set of results, comments CFO Matt Moran. He and his colleague William McAteer, group finance director, won the award for best IR by a CEO/CFO this year. The company also took home the grand prix for best overall IR in the large-cap category and the award for best investment meetings and roadshows.
Talking from New York where his team is on a post-results roadshow, Moran says the bank’s shareholder base follows the market’s general trend, with 30 percent of its equity held by US institutions – up from 5 percent in 1999. ‘[Our IR strategy] is consistent and very simple; we are an open bank and we encourage people to come and see us,’ he explains.
Winners of the IR Magazine Ireland Awards are clearly well acquainted with European and transatlantic flight schedules and were generally commended for their willingness to meet face to face with investors by the analysts and portfolio managers who responded to the Investor Perception Study, Ireland 2005. This study, which polls fund managers, buy-side analysts and sell-side analysts, identifies the award winners for Ireland and gauges the investment community’s view on the current state of Irish investor relations.
