Get a group of IROs together and one of the topics of conversation will inevitably be: which brokers provide the best roadshow support? Given the pressure to make the most of time on the road – especially if management is in tow – any advice on which firms provide the best meetings, logistics and feedback is highly valuable.
With that in mind, IR Magazine includes this question each year in its global surveys of IROs: which broker hosted the roadshow you were most impressed with? The result is included in the IR Magazine Global Roadshow Report 2014, which investigates all areas of non-deal roadshow practices.
So who received the most mentions in 2014? For the second year in a row, the top-ranked broker for this particular question is Barclays Capital. According to one respondent: ‘Barclays manages to get the highest-quality investors combined with great logistics and attentive sales teams and feedback, so overall offers the best broker service.’
Bank of America Merrill Lynch comes second, also for the second year running, while JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Citi rank third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
The report, which is based on the responses of 1,146 IR professionals, also explores whether companies are happy to go on the road with brokers that have neutral or negative ratings, or that don’t provide research coverage.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents choose not to travel with brokers that don’t cover them: more than half (54 percent) say they wouldn’t consider it. ‘There are so many [brokers] that cover us, and we have a hard time satisfying all their demands so we don’t have time for those not covering us,’ says one IRO.
A sizeable 20 percent of respondents say they have gone on roadshows with non-covering brokers, however, showing this is not as rare an activity as some might think.
IR teams are more open to working with brokers that aren’t positive on the stock. Almost half (46 percent) say they have gone on the road with a broker that has a neutral or negative recommendation, and a further 36 percent say they would consider it.
Looking at the results by region, IROs in North America are the least happy with this arrangement: just 40 percent have partnered with a broker where the rating is neutral or worse. By contrast, that figure is 60 percent among IROs based in Europe.
Click here to download a free copy of the IR Magazine Global Roadshow Report 2014.
