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We work with investment banks to take companies public. We are retained by corporate issuers to provide specialized communication services and logistics related to IPOs and other transactions. Since 1992, the principals of our firm have worked on many of the largest and most challenging IPOs in the US and Canada.
To date we have been successful. For five consecutive years, our clients have been awarded the most prestigious honor that is bestowed in our industry: Best IPO Communications of the Year. The principals of our firm consist of three generations of transaction marketing professionals. To our knowledge, no other firm can make these claims.
Globally, we have one competitor. If you are talking to them you may also want to consider talking to us.
We are cogs in the great wheel of transaction marketing: a vitally helpful component to those working on the inside of a deal. To those involved peripherally, we are often behind the scenes if seen at all. We do not issue press releases or publicize our engagements.
Through our due diligence with bankers, equity capital markets, and management we prepare the speaking team for what can be an intense foray into the capital markets. Even seasoned issuers benefit from our involvement when readying to meet with the mosaic of institutions, hedge funds and other buy-side investors for the first time in the context of a new publicly-traded entity.
We are determined to introduce the best possible management teams and stories to Wall Street and Bay Street. We are experts at scripting investor presentations, and designing and producing these presentations. Our objectivity allows us to identify material weaknesses in a story and provide a remedy – free of politics. As many of the deals we work on are co-managed with two or more lead banks, this can be helpful.
On a typical engagement we provide roadshow logistics. Our logistical capabilities go beyond what any investment bank provides, as we are on the ground with the traveling team moving from city to city. We attend to hundreds of details. Some of these details – if not managed properly – have the potential to rile not only the working group but the deal itself. Our involvement ensures this risk is mitigated. We act as an advance party to clear any obstacles to prevent delays, thus ensuring on-time meetings. As we also tend to management's comfort which results in more focused, better performing speaking teams.
We are also a leading provider of speaker coaching for one-on-ones, group meetings and Q&A.
We execute very high-quality group investor meetings in New York, Boston, San Francisco, and London and believe we are one of the top two vendors you would consider globally to perform such a function. The branding we provide is first-rate and ensures management is presented to investors in a very polished and professional manner.
We are the US' most prolific provider of Investor Days for public companies who host such events. We have assisted more companies to plan, coordinate and execute their Analyst and Investor Days than any other US firm.
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Our Advantage
We have few competitors. We encounter one particular company on a regular basis. This is the same company one of our principals was the C.O.O. of until December 2004. Our advantage relative to our competition is two-fold. First, the people who actually work on your assignment have much more experience than our peers. Second, the senior staff of our firm has investor relations backgrounds and deep experience related to matters of strategy and finance. Our principal competitor does not. These two differentiators can contribute a material advantage to the working group and results produced during the course of an IPO roadshow campaign.
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Our Work
We are a firm retained by companies seeking a listing on a US or Canadian stock exchange through an initial public offering or a similar transaction involving a roadshow. We are generally recommended to issuers through a bulge bracket investment bank or the Company’s IR or PR advisors. In some circumstances we will reach out to issuers directly if we believe we are well-suited because of our experience with similar companies.
We are a firm about results. We have to be. Our business is about as measurable as they come: either you priced your IPO and raised the capital or you didn't. In fourteen years we haven't worked on many that didn't price.
We believe we are a leading authority on the IPO process and have a long track record of planning, cöordinating, and executing all aspects of transaction roadshows. Most of our mandates are IPOs and secondaries in the $350 million to $2 billion range. 80% of the offerings we work on are equity deals, primarily in the US and Canada.
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How we work
Our clients are successful in some small part through our close work with them and their banking team(s). Often, we are on-site with clients for weeks or months. We measurably improve their ability to communicate with investors, analysts and the financial media.
Launching an IPO includes the cöordination of several internal functions. During the course of our engagement, we may interface and communicate with Investor Relations, Marketing, Finance, Legal, Corporate Development, Strategy, Communications, and always the executive office. Our clients find our diverse capabilities unique and valuable. We provide one point of contact which is paramount to making great progress in short order. We circulate and author written briefs on an ongoing basis, which provides multi-disciplined teams the necessary paperwork to stay on top of the project’s progress.
Our project managers have more experience than others in our industry, with a minimum of ten years experience and as much as twenty years of experience. We are a small global operation transfixed by providing superior service. We operate in a highly demanding business and appreciate the high standards and commitment to quality that is necessary and expected by corporate finance teams.
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IPO Credibility
We are instrumental in enhancing and conveying management credibility and the issuer's brand in a transaction environment.
Credibility, ahead of business strategy and even tangible metrics (EPS growth and cash flow, to name two), is by far the leading factor buy-side investors consider when evaluating whether to buy a common stock (October 2005, NIRI IR Update).
Branding during an IPO is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Through our wholly-owned subsidiary, Ignition Creative, we provide leading branding solutions for institutional investor audiences.
We are also experts at planning and executing Investor Days for medium and large publicly-traded companies.
Common sense tells us credibility and confidence is a two way street: investors must believe you have:
1) the requisite amount of credibility and
2) an adequate level of confidence that your management team will execute on its plans for growth.
You will require the same belief in yourself and your team. Rigorous preparation guided by experienced professionals is an effective way to acquire the necessary confidence.
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Chicken Feet
There are several inputs that will determine the valuation of your offering. At a certain point, most are beyond your control (capital structure, financial metrics, peer group, the market). However, there remain a number of "intangibles" that, despite the hype they have received in some circles, remain something you can and must control.
These so-called "intangibles" are, admittedly, central to the success of equity offerings. And they are not a by-product of an active imagination or the advertising of IR firms. They are derived from, and are a product of, credibility and confidence. Many books have been authored on the subject. The accounting profession continue to work to understand how best to quantify the intangible value of companies. We believe the following novel series of illustrations will demonstrate why any company going public must harness their brand:
If one has not pondered the fact that chickens do, in fact, have widely varying feet one would be likely to assume or even ignore the fact that they do. If we extend this analogy to buy-side investors, let us assume they are chicken-feet experts. When you meet this audience (which is the single most important audience in determining the success of your transaction), you are the chicken. At the end of your investor presentation they will make judgment calls on who you are, where you came from, and what you are likely to produce.
So, you must use your brand and prepare well to frame your company the way you want or they will most certainly do it for you. And when it comes to chickens, there are some breeds that are simply better than others.
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