Interfax Business Service launches new IR service to link public companies to private shareholders
Interfax Business Service (IBS), part of the Interfax Information Service Group, announces the launch of a new service to link public companies to individual shareholders and bond holders as part of the expansion of its spectrum of investor relations (IR) services.
“Responding to clients’ requests, IBS is launching a service which will allow companies to establish contacts with private shareholders. The large number of companies that were created from RAO UES, which have hundreds of thousands of individual investors, and companies that have gone through IPO’s are among those to which this new service will be of interest. Such issuers could seek contact with a wide range of retail investors over a broad spectrum of issues, from minority shareholders’ attendance of shareholder meetings and their role in votes on interested-party transactions, to efforts to optimize the structure of equity capital,” said IBS General Director Mikhail Matovnikov.
“Contact with retail investors is often needed in restructuring and in preparing offers on ruble bond issues. In this context, the service could be of interest to issuers and financial consultants,” he said.The new service helps establish direct contacts with private investors, polls them and influences them into supporting the management, stimulates their participation in corporate actions, draws retail investors into discussions of a wide spectrum of issues essential for the company’s operations, and organizes the buying up of company securities.
More than a year ago, IBS launched a service identifying the corporate shareholders of Russian public companies, as well as holders of ruble bonds. This service has been in high demand, while the regular identification of shareholders helps companies to assess changes in the shareholder profile, which is especially useful during preparations for shareholder meetings, planning road shows, holding corporate presentations for investors and in planning SPO’s.P>
*** Interfax Business Service is an Interfax Group subsidiary specializing in providing Investor Relations services to companies throughout the world. It is a strategic partner of Thomson Reuters in Russia and in countries across the Commonwealth of Independent States. This cooperation makes it possible to widen the spectrum of services by using the best technologies and top-quality international information. In 2008, Interfax Business Service implemented IR projects for 56 companies in Russia and the CIS.
Interfax possesses unique capabilities in extending IR services, which includes the information resources available to it as Russia’s leading information agency, strong contacts with Russian institutional and private investors, and experience of dealing with issuers and investors in various areas (information disclosure, rating, credit risks and analysis).
*** The Interfax Information Services Group develops professional information solutions helping companies to work on financial and commodity markets, to take investment decisions, manage risks, and organize external communications.
Our products and services include news reports, stock exchange information, analysis, searchable data bases, business references on companies, ratings and rankings, credit reports, services in IT and information disclosure, organization of press conferences and posting e-advertising. Interfax Group operates in Russia, the CIS, Central Europe and China.