The decision to go on the road remains as popular as ever, but the relative percentage figures for North America and Europe have swapped places from 2015, according to the IR Magazine Global Roadshow Report 2016. This year, 92 percent of North American and 89 percent of European companies went on the road, reverting to the figures seen in 2014.
Regionally, European companies spent 3.6 fewer days on the road. Just 22 percent of European companies planned to have more roadshows.
When it comes to the use of brokers for roadshows among European companies the majority go on the road with more than five brokers, with the average number of brokers used by European companies sitting at 6.4.
As roadshow activity has declined at European companies, every one of the top five most-used brokers by European companies has seen a fall in the percentage of companies using its services.
Deutsche Bank has experienced the biggest drop: in 2015, forty percent of European companies went on the road with it. In 2016, that figure has fallen to just over 28 percent. Goldman Sachs tops the list of most-used brokers for European firms this year, rising from seventh place last year.
European companies have seen reductions in both roadshow and investor conference activity, with roadshow travelers going on one trip fewer this year and the 92 percent of investor conference attendees doing so on average 7.9 times, compared with 8.6 times in 2015.
More European companies are hosting site visits this year but fewer visits are actually being hosted overall: in 2015, 65 percent of European survey respondents hosted 5.8 site visits on average, while this year 71 percent hosted an average of 4.9.
