Your wider corporate conversation should be even more value-creating – filling in gaps, injecting emotion, producing an overview – to positively inform investor decision-making in a lively way.

Quoted companies must work for recognition due to restrictions on the production and distribution of broker research under the MiFID II rules (see here). Meanwhile, newspapers have reduced their growth-company coverage.

This brings a big potential advantage for good communicators. Your website will be the first port of call for most buy-side analysts, financial advisers, retail investors and journalists. A Quoted Companies Alliance survey of fund managers found: “Investors see company websites becoming more important as a primary source of information ….”

You need to produce enough information to present an accurate picture of your business – but investors require more. They want to track how you got to where you are now, and an idea of what comes next. Investors want news.

AIM companies, for example, will include all their regulatory news, as required by the AIM Rules. But competition for equity growth capital is hot, so canny boards spread the knowledge where it matters most.

Why not produce an informative corporate blog, with regular posts on your business – enlightening points on your process or technology, news and views to support your strategy?

Clearly you need to avoid price-sensitive data that should be announced to the markets. Interested investors will already have seen that – their next step is to drill down for the telling detail, the human angle they need to inform a ‘buy’ decision. They like leaders who clearly understand their market and are confident enough to sell their strategy to the wider world.

You can go further by illustrating news and views with eye-catching images and video, encouraging followers to sign up for your newsfeed. Spread your investor communications net even wider – and boost your SEO – with a social media campaign.

By adding perspective, you’re helping your brokers market your equity – so make sure they’re followers too. It’s another great reason for potential supporters to pick up the phone to you, their adviser or yours.

Context is key – news and views should go beyond the company to reflect management thinking on industry issues and workplace issues. Just keep investors in mind and don’t stray into content that must first be announced to the market.

Or go even further. Great copy, professionally produced and presented, can be repurposed – for non-regulatory news releases, analyst briefings, corporate collateral and as material for events, presentation packs and public speaking opportunities. So you save time.

Let investors see and hear from the operational team. Involving top managers in the communications process in this way boosts their confidence and promotes consistency of external message.  Your website is could be your most important investor-relations platform – use it.

If you’d like to communicate to attract investors, we’d love to hear from you! Please visit our site at www.allertoncomms.co.uk and let us know how we can help.

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We’re seeking an able, resourceful freelance PR professional to join our team in delivering great results for exciting growth-company clients in energy, cleantech, resource efficiency, transport and built environment, plus technology, healthcare and finance.

Working mainly from home, initially part-time, you will be a key member of the business. You’ll have strong writing skills and a record in either corporate PR – agency or in-house – or in journalism. This is an opportunity to build experience in business/financial communications as Allerton develops its digital offering.

Location: London / South. Pay: negotiable.

Please write to info@allertoncomms.co.uk with a brief CV and contact details.

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http://www.prweek.com/article/1414533/increased-press-regulation-not-affront-free-speech-its-bad-pr

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As one professional told us: “There’s massive demand for quality assets among private equity investors. They have full-time teams scouting around the country, talking to potential vendors.”

A number of factors are at work. First, an obvious point perhaps, but there are some very able business people in the North of England, who know how to build an enterprise that’s fit to last.

Second, the UK economy has been performing well in many sectors since the banking crisis. There may be uncertainty about the future – with the Brexit vote, UK and international political woes and wider credit-focused economic fears all playing a part. Yet good private companies have grown, establishing strong positions in traditional and nascent markets. That appeals to long-term investors.

A third factor driving demand could be perceived poor returns in public equity markets, combined with a drop in the number and value of IPOs and a preference for keeping a low profile compared to ownership of a listed company.

Figures for private equity deals are often hard to establish, with a three-year wait for clarity on activity levels, but the current high demand is shown by the due diligence and old-fashioned schmoozing investors are putting in. This makes sense – while some founders will always take the highest bid, others want to ensure what they’ve built stays in good hands to the benefit of stakeholders including employees, even if they take away less cash.

A key objective for PE investors is to get on the vendor’s shortlist and this can involve a long courtship. It provides prospective buyers with an opportunity not only to establish good relations but also to identify problems – while gaining a better understanding of the business and how it might be improved by new owners.

This type of activity is firmly established in the Northwest, so that Manchester is now a substantial European private equity hub. There are numerous active financial houses, with origins variously in large institutions, private ownership, publicly funded enterprise bodies and university departments.

It says much that the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association has a local director, Richard Young. “Private Equity in Manchester has been a huge success,” he told the Manchester Evening News last July. “The number of firms … and the amount they are investing in the region have grown massively over the last 20 years. Manchester now has a vibrant community which can offer competitive solutions in all but the very largest deals.”

Investment activity in the North could have big implications for the rest of the country and London especially, given the capital’s high property, recruitment and commuting costs and the growing attractions of life elsewhere.

“A small business looking for wealthy backers could be better off in Manchester than London, if it is seeking investors geared towards start-ups,” wrote Andrew Bounds in the Financial Times in January.

“In Northwest England, … private equity groups are more likely to invest in companies still run by their founders, according to industry research. Manchester is rare for a regional UK city in having a cluster of funds based there. It also has the regional offices of several London-based firms…”

HS2, Northern Powerhouse, Brexit or otherwise, the Northwest looks a safe bet for growing businesses for a long time to come.

If you’d like to respond to this article or discuss any aspect of private equity PR please contact Peter via Linkedin @allertoncomms or www.allertoncomms.co.uk  peter.curtain@allertoncomms.co.uk

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We agree with Watef when they say: “Water sustainability, alongside climate change, is at the forefront of global concerns. The Watef Network is a novel initiative proposed to take an interdisciplinary approach to solving problems of unsustainable water consumption in the built environment.
“The network provides a forum to collaboratively explore the supply, treatment, distribution, risk monitoring, improved efficiency and conservation of water within the built environment. It also investigates the challenges to improving the adaptive capacity of building users, providers and professionals and consequently facilitate long-term, adaptable water efficiency through behaviour change and the use of technology.”

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Commenting on the content-led communications strategy, Calum Innes, CKD Galbraith’s Head of Energy: said: “We worked with our PR consultancy, Allerton Communications, to identify new ways to raise the firm’s profile as expert advisers on all property-related aspects of energy, renewable energy and utility projects and to demonstrate our expertise using real case studies that helped clients.”

Read about it here. Read Energy Matters here.

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Yet on those occasions when a company announces something big, say plans to raise money in public markets, it’s often the first time anyone has heard of it, perhaps outside a small circle of customers, staff, suppliers and investors. The risk is that some will interpret your message as: ‘You know nothing about us, but we’d like your money.’ Information is the lifeblood of business and it’s important that ambitious, growing firms generate their fair share. Nobody is recommending that companies make noise for the sake of it – as in social situations, no one likes a boastful bigmouth.

But it’s important that people know you are there, active and able to serve a need, whether it’s making widgets or providing consultancy services.

Corporate communications is not about finding a spouse by getting your picture in the paper. It’s about making cold leads hot, winning orders, flushing out better, more efficient suppliers – or obtaining better terms from your current ones, reassuring staff and prompting the best applicants to send in their CVs. It’s also about getting on the radar of potential investors – both individual and institutional.

We advise growing companies, even those seemingly destined to stay private, to act like they’re already publicly quoted so they get used to the idea of keeping their various audiences informed. (Increasingly, investors believe, no news is bad news.) But there are equally valid reasons for starting this process even if you’re undecided on an eventual IPO. One, circumstances change and a float may become the best strategy. Two, if and when the time comes when your shares go on sale in the market, the investment community – institutions and equity analysts – will be much more inclined to open their doors if they know a bit about you, or can find out through a quick media search.

Analysts in particular don’t like surprises. They are relied upon by traders for their judgment, and won’t roll out the carpet for companies that appear from nowhere. Financiers will be looking for the ‘back story’.

So how to go about developing a communications strategy? First, get a plan – plot out all the news your company is likely to generate in the coming 12 months – orders, fundraising, a sale or acquisition, a big hire, an office opening, hitting a new market or introducing new technology or application.

Don’t worry that you can’t predict these things with certainty – it’s a working document, a moveable feast. Getting used to updating it is a good exercise in itself.

Second – work out whom you want to get your messages across to – these could be any and all of the following – potential customers and others in your supply chain, present and potential private-equity investors, current and prospective staff, and industry regulators.

Third – look at what communications channels you have already – brochures and other collateral, your website, electronic newsletters, your professional association, direct mail, the trade shows you attend, contact with referrers – and ensure the way you talk about your company and its progress is aligned. Making the most of all these valuable information sources and establishing procedures that guard against miscommunication will enable you to get the good news across.

Fourth – use the media. We are fortunate living in a democracy where, despite the style of some popular publications, we enjoy an active, independent press. The business and financial press plays its part better in the UK than just about anywhere, reporting good news and bad, protecting and balancing the interests of investors, entrepreneurs, customers, fighting their readers’ corner, often battling needless bureaucracy and overregulation on your behalf.

A good media relations strategy will not only minimise the risk of inaccuracy, it will also build milestones, an independently reported account of your company’s progress – and could even lead to your being projected as an authority on your industry or profession. A journalist will often look for specialists to comment on developments in their industry.

Make a point of understanding the media you rely on and examining fresh ways to get your message across. Familiarise yourself with the media in general and the output of certain journalists in particular – whether financial, local, trade and technical, web-based, broadcast or paper. But make sure you and your advisers understand the nature of ‘news’ – not, as one corporate lawyer told me, his firm’s sponsorship of the flower beds on a ring-road roundabout. PR is highly valuable but should not be viewed as a substitute for advertising. Journalists tend to know the difference, especially since the latter pays their salary.

Many companies engage PR firms to help them, whether by providing strategic advice, arranging media training, or designing and implementing a communications programme. A key part of your advisers’ work will be assembling a body of information such as the key messages that will be agreed and ‘signed off’. This will make the process of drafting documents easier and ensure all the management team, and its advisers, have the same answers to major questions. In choosing a PR firm, consider what you require, write a brief (helpful to PR firms in understanding needs but not always provided) and invite a couple to pitch. Focus on what they can commit to delivering – ongoing strategy sessions may not help you achieve your objectives. The right agency will recognise this and work with you on concrete deliverables.

As in all your dealings, reputation is hard won and easily lost. But this should not stop your business adopting a higher profile. Be open and honest – about bad news as well as good. Companies that are realistic and open enough to share their news build support among key audiences such as customers, investors and staff. An ability to demonstrate that management is equipped to deal with a crisis and point to a way out of it will instil confidence. As in all other elements of your business, it is important to manage expectations.

You don’t need me to tell you that business is about vision, strategy, hard work, resourcefulness, creativity and common cause. Doing all that, without making sure people know about it, simply doesn’t make sense. A sound communications strategy, well worked out and professionally implemented, will underpin your accomplishments and lay a firm foundation for the future.

This article appeared in Flight Plan, an AngelNews publication.

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