Recent articles

IR30: A Q&A with Deborah Pawlowski of Kei Advisors

Aug 21, 2018

Deborah Pawlowski has more than 30 years’ experience in management, strategic planning, IR, marketing and communications and set up her consultancy – Kei Advisors – just as Reg FD came into force in 2000. A military graduate, Pawlowski is an active member of the IR community, having held a NIRI board seat and been president of the NIRI virtual chapter (she remains advocacy ambassador for the virtual chapter). She even took – and passed – the inaugural NIRI Invest...

ESG

Global securities body told to set the bar on climate disclosure

Aug 21, 2018

Andrew Holt

Global securities body told to set the bar on climate disclosure

Investors and finance experts have put pressure on the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) – the international body bringing together securities regulators – to prompt a global shift on climate risk reporting. A new report reveals that investors with a global portfolio suffer due to ‘regula...

Buy side

Global equity market shrinks as buybacks grow

Aug 21, 2018

Andrew Holt

Global equity market shrinks as buybacks grow

The global equity market is shrinking at its fastest pace in the last two decades, as a wave of corporate share buybacks overwhelms the overall volume of companies going public, issuing new stock or selling convertible debt. US companies have been particularly hyperactive buyers of their own stock, thanks to the earnings boost delivered by tax cuts and the robust economy. The overall volume of US buybacks is expected to reach a record-breaking $1 tn in 2018. ...

Case studies

Spotlight on a top IRO: Oliver Stratmann, Lanxess

Aug 21, 2018

Staff Writers

Spotlight on a top IRO: Oliver Stratmann, Lanxess

Oliver Stratmann, head of treasury & IR at German specialty chemicals company Lanxess, scooped the award for best investor relations officer (small & mid-cap) at 2018’s IR Magazine Awards – Europe, held last month in London. Here, he shares his IR views and experiences with ELITE Connect. Can you please give a brief overview of your career history to date? I started at the German chemical conglomerate company Hoechst almost 20 ye...

Reporting

Big in Japan

Aug 20, 2018

Andrew Holt

Japanese merger and acquisition (M&A) volumes have set new records in the first half of the year as companies continue to seek growth outside their home market. Now, moves to improve corporate governance and focus on capital efficiency are spurring further consolidation in domestic industries, leading to more M&A activity and – vitally – higher valuations. Hiromi Suzuki of Goldman Sachs Research covers Japanese strategy and discusses what this means for ...

Shareholder targeting & ID

Tapping into Europe’s rich direct lending pipeline

Aug 20, 2018

Patrick Marshall

Tapping into Europe’s rich direct lending pipeline

In an era of rising correlations, institutional investors are increasing their exposure to alternative asset classes. At the forefront of this trend is direct lending, where institutional investors can access sustainable yields and sources of uncorrelated returns. Europe’s emergence as a direct lending market is still relatively recent and it is vitally important to understand the rapid evolution of the market. The European small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) ...

ESG

SSGA ramps up opposition to boards and management on ESG issues

Aug 17, 2018

Ben Ashwell

SSGA ramps up opposition to boards and management on ESG issues

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) is among the world’s largest and leading asset managers to bring environmental and governance issues to the foreground in their engagements and voting patterns with portfolio companies. SSGA expanded its gender diversity campaign last year to include its portfolio companies in Canada and Japan, and the asset ma...

ESG

IR30: A look back at summer 1990 – Japanese IR

Aug 16, 2018

Garnet Roach

IR30: A look back at summer 1990 – Japanese IR

‘Domestic investor relations in the western sense is practically non-existent, but the twin desires of foreign firms to tap Japanese capital markets and of Japanese corporations to attract foreign investment have come to the fore,’ wrote Paul Dionne and David Lake for IR Magazine with a story published in summer 1990. ...

Careers

Johnson & Johnson appoints new head of investor relations

Aug 15, 2018

Andrew Holt

Johnson & Johnson appoints new head of investor relations

American consumer packaged goods and pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson has appointed Chris DelOrefice to the position of vice president of investor relations. DelOrefice will report to Joseph Wolk, executive vice president and CFO. DelOrefice has been with Johnson & Johnson for 19 years, most recently serving as CFO of the North American hospital medical devices business. Previously, he held leadership roles across all three segments of Jo...

Buy side

US is most favorable region among fund managers, says BofA Merrill Lynch

Aug 15, 2018

Andrew Holt

US is most favorable region among fund managers, says BofA Merrill Lynch

The BofA Merrill Lynch August Fund Manager Survey finds the US is the most favorable region for the first time in five years, accompanied by record high investor sentiment around US profits. Allocation to US equities rose 10 percentage points to 19 percent overweight, the biggest holding since January 2015 and the top equity region for the first time in five years. When asked about their regional expectations for corporate profits, 67 percent of those surveye...

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