Blog
OTC Markets Tells SEC: Extend Eligibility of Reg A+ to All Smaller Reporting Companies
OTC Markets (OTCQX: OTCM) has filed a petition with the Securities and Exchange Commission requesting the SEC to extend amendments under Reg A+ to a far wider range of SEC reporting companies.
R. Cromwell Coulson, CEO of OTC Markets, explained that Reg A+ securities offerings are perfect for smaller companies. Yet the SEC missed an opportunity to improve access to capital and support small company growth. Coulson believes expanding issuer eligibilityto all smaller reporting companies is win for the economy as well as a boost for SMEs.
Digital IR: 2016 best practices
IR Magazine, sponsored by NASDAQ, recently conducted an extensive global survey on how the IR community is using social media, IR websites, webcasting and corporate video to communicate with investors. The white paper titled, Digital IR: 2016 Best practices provides important insights and the latest global trends to fine-tune your company’s IR program.
Is Your Smart Beta Risk-Efficient?
The challenges facing investment advisors seem to get more complex every day: volatile markets; an uncertain political environment; and an unending array of new investment approaches to understand. In the past, it seemed there were two "schools of thought": 1) since markets are efficient, use low-cost, cap-weighted passive; or 2) find managers to beat the market and manage risk. Today we see an incredible proliferation of choices in "the space between" passive and active strategies.
Within the growing universe of noncap-weighted ETFs—alternatively called smart beta, or factor-based investing—there are strategies targeting single-risk factor exposure (e.g., value, momentum), others employing alternative weighting methods (e.g., fundamental-weighted, dividend-weighted) and a smaller, but expanding, set of multifactor strategies coming to market.
Read more at ETF.com
IR advice from a shareholder activist
A conversation with Greg Taxin, Luma Asset Management.
In these segments of the video series ‘ON Message with Neil Stewart’, produced by Bloomberg and IR Magazine, Taxin dispenses tips for CEO’s and IROs who want to learn how to work with the new generation of constructive activists, not necessarily fight them.
See the interview here.
3 Takeaways From iShares’ Gold ETF Hiccup
Some exchange-traded fund investors out there are likely scratching their heads about gold.
The market’s largest gold ETFs were thrust into the spotlight on Friday afterBlackRock (BLK) announced, just before the stock market opened, that it would no longer accept new share creations for its $7.6 billion iShares Gold Trust (IAU).
Throwing a wrench into normal ETF mechanics, as BlackRock did, can be problematic when an ETF’s supply/demand balance falls out of equilibrium. Normally, ETFs are supposed to trade in line with the value of their assets, in this case gold. When new shares are limited, an ETF’s price can jump to a “premium,” and then suddenly collapse, irrespective of price moves in the underlying asset.
Earnings tweets becoming ‘more effective’, finds study
FTI Consulting report explores effectiveness of social media disclosures
Though fewer companies are sharing earnings news via social media, those that do are finding their disclosures more popular and effective, according to a new report from FTI Consulting.
FTI recorded 504 earnings result tweets in 2015, down slightly from 521 last year, but suggests such disclosures are ‘almost twice as popular and effective’ after recording 3,160 retweets and likes across all companies, up from 1,766 in 2014.
Click here for the full report.
CEO Insights For a Successful Institutional Investor Meeting
Ipreo recently polled leading Buyside analysts about their research & new idea generation process. Below is a link to the findings from some of the largest firms in the investment business, including Black Rock, Fidelity Investments, and J.P. Morgan.
Is your company IR doing the best it can to reach these Buyside firms and analysts? Click here for CEO insights and be prepared for a successful institutional investor meeting.
Five years of research: how has IR changed?
How much has the investor relations role changed since 2011? We have tried to answer this question as part of this year’s Global Investor Relations Practice Report, which examines exactly how IROs around the world practice their profession.
Included in the 2015 edition is a section that examines some of the headline figures – team size, budget, number of investor meetings and the like – from the past five years of IR Magazine’s research, which makes for interesting reading.
Continued at IR Magazine.
Blueprint for a Successful Earnings Call
The quarterly earnings call is one of the most powerful means a public company has within its control to broadly and clearly disseminate essential information to the financial community. Four times a year, management has the ability to demonstrate execution against its communicated plan, reinforce strategy and set expectations. And in the event operating performance falls short of expectations, the call, when executed well, serves as an ideal platform to address key issues and begin to rebuild credibility.
In this report, we cover all aspects of the earnings process – from preparation to execution and followthrough, and include both best and worst practices based on investor and IRO experiential perspectives. Our research identifies several opportunities for companies to refine and improve the way they conduct their earnings calls, serving to differentiate the IR program and further capture investor and analyst mindshare.
Regulation A+: Now Everyone Can Invest In Your Startup
For the past 80 years only accredited investors, meaning individuals who make over $200,000 in income or who have $1 million in assets (excluding their primary residence), have been able to invest in startups in America. That has changed today with the implementation of Title IV of the JOBS Act which represents one of the biggest changes in the financial service industry. Additionally, this will likely have a positive impact on our economy as 65% of the net new jobs are created by small businesses, while 1 million jobsare cut each year by large corporations.
The team of startup investing marketplace, Onevest.
Regulation A+ is a newly revamped securities regulation that companies can rely on to raise up to $50 million from accredited and non-accredited investors alike. In traditional funding (Regulation D, Rule 506 (b) / (c) offerings) companies are either limited to having up to 35 non-accredited investors in their round or completely banned from onboarding non-accredited investors altogether. Accredited investors make up less than 1% of the US population, meaning 99% of people previously couldn’t invest in startups even if they understood the risk and had the liquid capital to deploy.
Regulation A has been around for years, but has not been widely used mainly because of the way the rules were written, making raising capital quite inefficient. In fact, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) estimated only 26 offerings were conducted annually and they were capped at an upper funding limit of $5 million. Whereas now, with Regulation A+, companies can raise up to $20 million on Tier 1 and up to $50 million on Tier 2, which changes the game.