Overall, the investment community is slightly more likely to take a meeting if it is virtual, though there is a difference in the preferences found among the buy side and sell side.
That is according to the new Corporate Access I report published in the summer 2022 issue of IR Magazine, which surveyed around 440 IR professionals and members of the investment community for their thoughts on all things corporate access.
When it comes to investors, although there is a slightly higher willingness to take a virtual meeting (35 percent, versus 31 percent who cite a preference for in-person meetings), almost the same figure – 34 percent – say it makes no difference.
There is a difference, however, when looking at the views of the buy side and sell side separately. On the buy side, four out of 10 respondents say they are more likely to take a virtual meeting, while just under a third would be more likely to take a meeting being held in person.
The reverse is true on the sell side, where there is a preference for physical meetings: 40 percent say they will more readily take an in-person meeting, compared with a quarter who say the same of virtual meetings.
Members of the buy side are also notably less likely to say that there is no difference between a virtual and an in-person meeting.
As well as the likelihood of investors to accept meetings across different formats, researchers also looked into views on how virtual and in-person meetings might affect engagement, how many meetings an investor needs before taking a position and the factors affecting such decisions – as well as much more.
