Insights

Our three-point plan is based on a firm belief that the primary objective of investor relations (IR) is to maximise the number of institutional investors who are aware of your story and strategy. An An objective to (blindly) raise your share price always backfires. This may sound counter-intuitive but it is a common mistake of companies’ […]

Too many private companies raising series-B or beyond hire an advisor for the first time on a success-fee basis, and think the deal is as good as done. But there is no magic wand that advisors can wave to get the money in and fund raises often fail because of this understanding gap between company and […]

We’ve never met with online retailer Boohoo but we like the way the company communicates with investors. Boohoo reports numbers very quickly. Six month numbers to August 31st came just 27 days after the accounting period closed. We like their KPIs which are clear and relevant. True, retail is a sector that is well understood by […]

We got much more feedback about this post than usual, especially from the analyst community. Here’s a typical response, making a good point about the impact from valuation:  “Couldn’t agree more! Nothing is more frustrating than having to disect and reconstruct a UK SMIDcap Tech results release! No question in my mind that it leads to […]

Most active fund managers underperform, meaning their clients would have done better investing in an index fund. So it seems strange to ask them how to run your company. Analyses of active versus passive fund management performance are sobering. There are many other reasons to be suspicious of investor surveys. Investors are a heterogeneous and fragmented bunch whose […]

Over the last 12 months we have been working with Cambridge, UK-based Featurespace, an exciting VC funded machine-learning company. It is the world leader in Adaptive Behavioural Analytics used to detect unusual behaviour such as fraud or addictive behaviour in real time.

What is the purpose of an IPO prospectus? A multi-hundred page legal disclaimer, or the key information document for investors? It should be the latter, but in our experience it is drafted as the former. The Financial Conduct Authority is asking for submissions on the question as part of its broader Investment & Corporate Banking […]

In this Insight we look at the FX moves triggered by the Brexit referendum decision, and how best to communicate the impact to investors, using ARM as a case study. This is not just about revenue mix. The press got very confused comparing stock market declines across Europe, forgetting that if currency is moving, you need […]

We’re excited to be hosting a valuation workshop for large and small company executives as part of London Technology Week at 8am on Tuesday 21 June in central London. Valuation is an opaque topic. Investors generally take a dim view of executives telling them what their company is worth but that does not mean you […]

The aim of investor targeting should be to ensure the managers of the largest possible pool of money know enough about your business that they are either already shareholders, or ready to invest at the right price. Companies often forget the low-hanging-fruit of reducing their red flag count, meaning action or inaction that turns off certain sections of the […]