Horizon CF has published the results of a study of the Russian IR market, which was attended by 190 respondents.
The study consists of two parts.
The first is a study of issuers' IR practices. This list includes 49 companies: 43 with listed shares, 3 with bond issuers, and 3 with companies preparing to enter the capital market. For listed companies, the results were analyzed depending on the size of the issuer and the maturity of the public status.
The second part is market opinion research. There are 141 respondents: 124 retail investors, 6 institutional investors, and 11 equity and bond market investment analysts.
According to the study, trust in a public company is formed on the basis of business quality, corporate governance and consistency in fulfilling obligations. The key objective of IR is to reduce uncertainty and create realistic expectations among investors.
Especially sensitive for an investor are situations when a company changes previously announced plans or important decisions for shareholders without giving the necessary explanations. The more uncertainty there is around the company, the more important it is to explain the changes and their consequences to the market in a timely manner.
The required minimum set of the company's IR practices includes timely disclosure of information, maintaining a continuous dialogue with the market, consistently informing about changes in the company and explaining the long-term guidelines for its development, the document says.
The study also reports that high-quality disclosure creates a predictable information environment for investors: regularity generates expectations, structure and comparability simplify analysis, and timely explanation of changes reduces uncertainty. For IR, it is important to have a different level of presentation for different audiences: simplicity and accessibility for retail, comparability and detail for professional participants.
