Fifteen questions with New World Resources

Radek Nemecek is head of IR at New World Resources, a London-listed, Amsterdam-headquartered coal producer. The company finished joint second for the small-cap grand prix for best overall IR at the IR Magazine Awards – Europe last year.

Radek Nemecek is head of IR at New World Resources

1. How long have you been in IR?
Since 2005.

2. What did you do before joining the profession?
I worked in financial PR and financial journalism.

3. What are your qualifications?
I hold an MA in finance and banking from the Charles University in Prague.

4. How is your IR team set up?
The team comprises me, an IRO and an IR co-ordinator.

5. Do you receive support from any external IR firms?
Yes, we use them mainly for shareholder and bondholder identification, proxy chasing, perception studies and during the copy writing of our annual reports.

6. How many roadshows and conferences do you usually take part in each year?
We do non-deal roadshows after full-year and interim results and attend major equity conferences in our industry, usually no more than four times a year. I try to bring our senior management to the large, high-profile conferences, whereas I cover smaller events, such as the Erste Group CEE and Turkey Conference in London and regional events in Prague, where our assets are located.

7. Do you hold investor days?
We did one in 2011. We also regularly organize site visits of our operations for both the buy side and the sell side.

8. Do you use social media as part of your IR program?
We have a presence on LinkedIn and Twitter.

9. What is the most popular question from analysts and investors right now?
Where do you see prices of your product (coal) for the next quarter, this year and in the long term?

10. What have been your biggest challenges over the past year?
Mainly market-related: falling coal prices, deteriorating market conditions, the influx of coal from the US, a slowing economy, and so on.

11. What’s your favorite part of IR?
It’s a great intersection between pure finance (cracking spreadsheets and modeling) and pure PR. You meet and talk with lots of interesting people in your firm and the wider investment community.

12. And your least favorite?
The quarterly frenzy around results when my family sees so little of me.

13. What do you enjoy doing outside work?
I love spending time with my kids, traveling and running. I’m a great fan of Austrian economics, the libertarian movement and someone I think is the only honest politician of our times: the recently retired Ron Paul.

14. How do you feel the role of IR is changing?
This job is mainly about being accessible and honest with people. The rest is on them: they have to decide how best to model the company, or take a view on the sector or the firm’s strategy. And complying with any outstanding regulation is a great part of the job.

15. If you could pass on one IR lesson, what would it be?
Be honest. In the long run there is absolutely nothing to gain by not being fully transparent about things, even negative things. Talk to the market, but also listen to the market – it’s the way to improve your IR program.

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