A relatively original trans-Atlantic event was held in June in New York, and saw a group of smaller-sized German firms crossing the pond to woo potential US-based shareholders.
More than 120 investors gathered at the conference, held at the Princeton Club in Manhattan, to meet and talk with the senior management of nine German listed corporations from various sectors, handpicked by the organizers for displaying a ‘winning combination that spells investment opportunity.’
‘Most of us like our beer frothy but not our stocks because that translates to being fully valued,’ jokes co-organizer Adam Friedman from IR agency Adam Friedman Associates on his blog. ‘Today’s global investor should be looking in the small and mid-cap sector in Germany for quality stocks that are undervalued but have long-term growth prospects.’
North American investors, which have been on the hunt for European bargains since mid-2013, are typically holders of large stakes in German majors but have been more reluctant to place their funds in small and medium-sized enterprises, due to the ‘difficulty in assessing investment risk in Germany’, according to research by Ipreo and Cometis, the German co-organizer of the event. ‘As the ‘last man standing in Europe’, Germany today represents the most attractive market and many of these companies have global operations mitigating the investment risk even more,’ highlights Friedman.
‘Our concept for the conference turned out well,’ enthuses Michael Diegelmann, managing director at Cometis. ‘The German Small and Mid-Cap Conference proved a very useful platform for constructive dialogue. Once again it was clear that personal interaction is one of the most promising forms of communication for building ongoing trust on both sides.’
The event concluded on an ‘impromptu’ note, with German participants invited onto the NYSE’s trading floor by brokerage firm J Streicher the following day. ‘Our conference highlighted similarities between German and American culture and made clear there is still plenty of room to enjoy business opportunities together,’ says Diegelmann, who plans to turn the successful experience into an annual event.
