Analysts and fund managers can be a contrary lot. Of the 180 members of the investment community interviewed for IR magazine’s Investor Perception Study, Nordic 2006/2007, 69 percent think that Sweden has the highest standard of investor relations in the region. Yet no Swedish companies picked up awards outside of the countrybased categories, where they couldn’t help but succeed.
Over the last four years, respondents to the Investor Perception Study have consistently singled out Sweden as having the best culture of shareholder communications. There are historical reasons for this: Sweden has a strong tradition of larger-cap companies actively engaging with the investment community. Other Nordic countries are definitely catching up, however.
While only 12 percent of fund managers and analysts think that Danish IR is the best in the region, it was Denmark’s Danske Bank that cleaned up at the IR Magazine Nordic Awards ceremony in Stockholm, taking home five trophies including best investor relations officer and grand prix for best overall IR. Less fortuitously, Danske also picked up the award that no one wants to win two years running: most progress in investor relations.
But perhaps, as with publicity, there’s no such thing as a bad award. Danske’s head of IR, Martin Gottlob, certainly seems to think so. ‘We won the same prize last year, so it’s a little bit of a surprise,’ he jokes. Gottlob is in the unusual position of having worked as an analyst covering Danske before he jumped over to the corporate side – and judging by the number of awards he received, this insight seems to have paid off.
Regardless of the dearth of awards received there, IR continues to mature in Sweden. The Stockholm Stock Exchange has played its part in allowing companies to develop their shareholder communications, free from the interference of overbearing regulation.
‘The stock exchange is a good one to be listed on,’ explains Sture Stølen, VP and head of investor relations at SAS, which picked up the award for best IR by a Swedish small cap. ‘It has not become too Americanized in terms of regulation.We can have a dialogue with the exchange, and it understands the need for good shareholder communications.’
Good communications have proven vital at SAS, which, like all airlines, has been through the mill in recent years. ‘The airline industry has been one of the more challenging in which to do IR given what it has been through since 2001,’ he says. ‘It’s only in 2004-2005 that the airlines have come back to profit after years of losses and unexpected events.’
For some, good shareholder communication means getting management out on the road as frequently as possible. Lundbeck, however, has built a roadshow program that makes use of the IR team as much as the CEO and CFO. Of the 300-odd investor meetings the company holds every year, around half are held solely with the IR team. The strategy is clearly working, with Lundbeck being commended for best investment community meetings in the region.
‘People always ask for the CEO or the CFO first, but then they get the IRO,’ quips Lundbeck’s IRO, Mads Bjerregaard Pedersen. He insists that the system works well and that the company gets good feedback, however. ‘A lot of people are happy to deal with IR because we take the time to go into the overall story,’ he adds.
