This profile is taken from the report Award-Winning IR – Asia 2018. Click to download your copy now.
Far East Consortium’s IR team is a great example of how multimedia technology can be used to make the world smaller, create efficiencies that weren’t previously possible, and bring together different communities.
The company has a broad shareholder base around the world, and this year announced its full-year results and interim results in three languages – Cantonese, Mandarin and English – with simultaneous translations. This improved transparency and relations with shareholders globally, as it evened the playing field for many investors.
The IR team at Far East Consortium is also open to experimenting with new tools and interactive technology. For instance, it created an IR page for the company on the social media site WeChat in October 2015. As of July 2018, the page had more than 11,000 subscribers, many of whom are overseas stakeholders. This page provides access to transcripts, past earnings webcasts and other IR materials.
An ongoing trend in investor communication is taking formerly dry or mundane legal filings and reimagining them as communication tools that can speak to a broader stakeholder base. Far East Consortium has made effective use of graphics, charts and videos to provide enhanced disclosures, making them more engaging, more readable and more interesting, and making the management team seem more personable. This includes sending out a regular newsletter and updating stakeholders on the progress of different projects the company is undertaking, as well as analysis of the real estate market and updates on government policies.
One judge remarked that Far East Consortium’s ‘all-round approach to multimedia has yielded great results for investors. Using technology to simultaneously translate interim results into multiple languages is a great innovation for disclosure, and using online tools to engage stakeholders is a great way to improve efficiency.’
