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  • Making news: how to supercharge investor communications in the MiFID II era

    July 23, 2019

    Regulatory news is a vital tool in investor relations. Also important is generating media interest and coverage. It’s great to excel at these channels – but they’re only part of the picture.

    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.

    Peter Curtain reflects on life outside the city

    The modernisation of the electricity grid is progressing rapidly and will continue to advance. M&A will play a key role.

    The Government faces many challenges, from enhancing European security to advancing AI and manufacturing. A crucial aspect of this is effectively communicating its environmental goals.

    I braved the Christmas shopping and party crowds to join a group of people looking to make energy supply as reliable and efficient as possible.

    Amid the hullaballoo about #netzero and its effects on the UK economy, I visited a group of low-carbon innovators to see how they’re making energy more sustainable and efficient for future generations.

    Efforts are being made to tempt pension fund managers back to London equities. That includes a Government push to make pension funds publicly disclose how much they invest in UK businesses compared to those overseas.

    Last week a Government scheme to promote heat pumps for homes was delayed by 12 months. Days later, the National Audit Office urged ministers to support the rollout ‘in a way that minimises the long-term costs to both taxpayers and consumers’.

    A great privilege for our take on the UK ground-mounted solar market to appear in PV Europe magazine

    Attending day 1 of Futurebuild 2024 yesterday I was struck by the large numbers and the buzzy vibe. And the crowd was bigger than it looked – the two or three events happening as I arrived were pretty packed. More here: https://bit.ly/49ZTAIv

    Solar PV is taking off in the UK, and 2024 is shaping up to be the best year yet for the technology. Let’s look at some of the factors driving the transition.

    As PR advisers working in the green economy, we’re as likely to be asked how to communicate an organisation’s sustainability as what it actually means.

    What a brilliant night at Re-Tech Drinks – ‘Bringing together good people in Renewables and Technology the Southwest ‘re-tech’ community’. The event did what it said on the tin.

    Allerton Communications is growing. We’re seeking a resourceful Digital Communications Executive to serve our low-carbon economy etc clients.

    A renewable-energy consultant told me of two engineers working in UK industry some years ago who discussed a tricky technical issue that could be addressed in one of two ways.

    Life and work are changing, and amid the shifting landscape, effective engagement with stakeholders is vital. The past year shows how much we can achieve away from the office. Now, as the economy starts to open up, customers, investors, staff and partners will be moving about as never before, and ultra-reliant on mobile communication.

    For any company looking to make a difference in the green economy, it’s vital to think about communication. We would say this – we’ve been helping innovators in energy and sustainability to tell their story for more than 12 years.

    Miracle on 34th Street is considered a must-see film at this time of year. (‘Christmas’ was omitted from the title for the May 1947 release.) The triple-Oscar winner is a seasonal box of delights that once opened, reveals profound truths about public relations – and they apply today. These address leadership, brand authenticity, mental health, […]

    Which type of PR should come first in the life of a business – B2B or B2C? Peter Curtain* reports. Attention growth companies – want to get better known? First, start building a network – then, and only then, start addressing consumers.

    Earth Day, a calendar date observed worldwide on 22 April to show support for environmental protection, is a great reminder of some of the campaigners who’ve alerted us to the urgent need to care for our planet.

    The past four weeks look set to alter society for years, with huge impact on the economy. Peter Curtain reflects on these changes and offers some thoughts on communication in the post-coronavirus world 1. We’re all global now. A virus that emerged from live-animal markets in the regional Chinese city of Wuhan became big when […]

    In this Financial Director article, Peter Curtain of Allerton Communications highlights the huge impact concerns about the environment are starting to have both on investment and the wider business world, and suggests how firms can act.

    Regulatory news is a vital tool in investor relations. Also important is generating media interest and coverage. It’s great to excel at these channels – but they’re only part of the picture.

    Allerton Communications, a boutique corporate and financial PR firm specialising in energy, sustainability and growth companies, is expanding.

    Allerton's Peter Curtain shares his views on what press regulation proposals mean for PR

    See Peter Curtain’s blog post http://www.watefnetwork.co.uk/blog-749 for http://www.watefnetwork.co.uk

    We’ve been catching up with some advisers on a visit to the Northwest of England and one thing is clear – investors are fighting hard for the best deals. 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 […]

    Peter Curtain of Allerton is proud to have joined the People & Communities Technical Committee of Watef, the Water Efficiency Network, and looks forward to making a contribution to this great initiative.

    Energy Matters - read issue 11 of highly informative magazine on renewables, utilities and more from our client CKD Galbraith here.

    Allerton Communications has been shortlisted along with our client CKD Galbraith in the industry-leading PR Moment Awards for our work producing Energy Matters. This is a great accolade and we're very proud.

    Allerton Communications is praised in a key case study by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the prestigious professional and training body, for producing the Energy Matters magazine and e-zine for our client CKD Galbraith.

    They used to say about banks that the best time to start one was 20 years ago – the point being, lenders make so much money, think what you’ve missed in the meantime. In rather the same way, I often advise companies to start effective communications as soon as they can – think what you can achieve when people understand your business.

    There’s no shortage of advice on communications but here are 10 rules to help you get your message across to both investors and other important targets.

    People get excited about stock market flotations because they are (or should be) an opportunity to make money – this applies primarily to new investors of course, but management and the original investors may also be out to cash in some of their holdings.