‘The investor base we deal with tends to be very much of a retail nature, which means lots of investors,’ says Sarah Dees, head of IR at Sound Energy. Tired of forking out anything up to £10,000 ($13,000) a pop to hold a conference call for 500 people or so, often running at more than two hours but allowing only one member of the C-suite to answer questions at a time, the gas company teamed up with Oliver Dean and MK21 to create something new.
‘We were looking for a new way to communicate with investors,’ explains Dees, ‘and one we could organize quickly.’ The result is a platform known as ALICS that Dees says feels ‘very much like what people use in their daily lives – it looks and feels like WhatsApp.’ It allows an unlimited number of users to be online at a time so anyone not confident enough to speak up in person can type a question to the C-suite.
With a ‘no question left unanswered’ approach, it also democratizes the Q&A. Rather than having to prioritize your top shareholders, Dean says ALICS means ‘time doesn’t have to limit how, or what, you respond to. In terms of engagement with investors, all of a sudden the chief executive is talking to them and answering their questions – and that goes a long way.’
As well as allowing a busy C-suite to answer everyone from top investors to Sound Energy’s many retail holders – ‘even the very tricky questions,’ observes Dean – the written format allows more breathing space for well-informed, measured answers.
What about the technical side? Questions are moderated by IR and don’t go live until they’ve been answered – so the question and answer are essentially linked to make them easier to read. This also means any questions deemed inappropriate or that can’t be answered for regulatory reasons can simply remain unseen. And if you’ve asked a question, the answer will show up in a different color from all the rest, making it easier for investors to find. Behind the scenes, Dees and Dean also link new questions to previous answers where relevant to avoid repetition.
Over time, MK21 has also added real-time analytics, including location data that can inform future roadshow destinations as well as sentiment that can be fed direct to the C-suite if a change of tone or more depth is needed on a topic, and Dean says the platform is constantly being developed and enhanced.
The initial cost to set up ALICS from scratch is around £2,000, followed by a per-session cost from £350, which includes support from MK21, pre, post and during the session. Most importantly though, investors like it, says Dees. More than that, Sound Energy’s use of the platform has evolved from its original purpose as a tool to better communicate with retail investors to one that a growing number of institutional investors have begun signing onto, too.
This article was published in the summer 2019 issue of IR Magazine
