MINIMUM VOLUNTARY STANDARDS OF

ONLINE
INVESTOR RELATIONS
PRACTICES

An initiative by African listed company executives

that care, to improve digital governance through
responsible investor communications

SMALL MEDIUM LARGE

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VERSION 1.0
 Investor relations (“IR”) is a strategic management
responsibility that integrates finance, communication,
marketing and securities law compliance to enable
the most effective two-way communication between
a company, the financial community, and other
constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a
company enhancing and protecting its reputation and
it’s securities achieving fair valuation.

NIRI (AS AMENDED)

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 Although the process of encouraging shareholders to
take an interest in the affairs of the company may be a
rather slow one, directors should not be discouraged.

It is their duty to make the maximum use of the methods

open to them of keeping the shareholders informed.

STA N DA R D B OA R D RO O M P R ACT I C E , P R E PA R E D BY T H E
INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS, LONDON

REVISED 1971

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 Companies should ensure the equitable treatment
of shareholders knowing that the question is not
only about what is communicated to shareholders,
but also how well.

Reputation adds value to the worth of a company.

KING CODE ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

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 Shareholders are pre-qualified customers.
They know your business, your brand and have
invested in you. Connect with them using investor
relations data, news and documents.

ROB STANGROOM

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Foreward
BY RO B STA N G RO O M

Why should executives care about

online investor relations?
Publishing information directly to a larger online audience on demand, counters
fake news, provides important information and ensures your brand is visible. This
is a highly effective reputation risk management strategy.

A dedicated investor community is a strategic asset, not only to communicate why people
should invest in your company, but also why they should buy your services or deal with you.

But real practical barriers to using a broad range of digital channels to communicate hinder
communications effectiveness because it’s not clear where your audiences are at any point in
time.

The Minimum Standards of Online Investor Relations Communications sets out clear steps for
companies to grow online communities from pre-qualified audiences using investment data
and news.

I welcome your feedback

Rob Stangroom
www.linkedin.com/in/robstangroom

August 2020

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Standards
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STANDARD 1 Define your investment thesis

STANDARD 2 Adopt a formal disclosure policy

STANDARD 3 Adopt an insider trading policy

STANDARD 4 Communicate economic value added

STANDARD 5
Use “push” technology to connect
directly with your community

STANDARD 6 Host a modern functional website

STANDARD 7 Publish executive profiles

STANDARD 8
Publish transcripts of virtual calls
and events

STANDARD 9 Publish key in-demand IR data

STANDARD 10 PDF, news & presentations archive

STANDARD 11 Publish an IR knowledge base

STANDARD 12
Actively distribute proxy
voting materials

STANDARD 13
Integrate IR data with social
media (with caution)

STANDARD 14 Engage third party news publishers

STANDARD 15 Leverage IR commercially

STANDARD 16
Enable research analyst and
brokers coverage

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STANDARD 1

Define your
investment thesis

DEFINE a simply framed investment case for

stakeholders to understand why they should
consider investing in, or continue to invest in your
company for the medium to long-term.
To promote continuous online visibility adopt digital and social media
messaging to capture the key elements of your company’s leading historical,
current and future role as a reliable, trusted and successful private sector
investor in your country and industry.

Value add recommendations:

1. Review this statement periodically at Board level
2. Integrate supporting messages into investor communications appropriately across your
digital channels consistently
3. Ensure your messaging is professionally designed and consistent with your corporate
branding and a defined content strategy

STANDARD 1’s objective is to enable investors to

immediately frame the investment opportunity you offer.

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STANDARD 2

Adopt a formal
disclosure policy

ADOPT a formal disclosure policy at Board level

to specifically address critical areas of capital
markets legislation, corporate governance and
strategic communications.
Clearly describe how these are to be met through your communications
governance strategies.

Value add recommendations:

1. Obtain buy-in in from key staff and disseminate your disclosure policy widely
2. Review and evolve the policy at least annually based on experience and market
conditions
3. Support your disclosure policy with an investor relations annual work plan
(however simple)

STANDARD 2’s objective is an active governance

compliance risk mitigation measure that also
provides context to IR.

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STANDARD 3

Adopt an insider
trading policy

ADOPT an Insider Trading Policy at Board level to

govern the activities of relevant staff, management
and the Board with respect to their share trading
activities within the law and stock exchange rules.
Value add recommendations:
1. Disseminate your insider trading policy widely internally and obtain evidence of
acknowledgment from recipients
2. Review and evolve the policy annually
3. Support with an investor relations annual work plan (however simple)

STANDARD 3’s objective is an active compliance

risk mitigation measure to show respect to your
online community.

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STANDARD 4

Communicate “economic
value added”

USE the Economic Value Added Statement

and Integrated Reporting capitals to
communicate how the value you create for
stakeholders is shared.
Consistently publish this mix of high-level strategic corporate messaging on
social media to underpin your company’s intellectual property, reputation and
investment thesis, to show that value is first created for stakeholders, then
shareholders.

Value add recommendations:

1. Integrate the publication of strategic content across social media channels consistently
2. Post at least 100 times a year (at least 2 social media posts a week)
3. Accentuate that the largest beneficiary of wealth created is usually Government and the
smallest shareholders frequent publication of an array of investor data

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STANDARD 4 (CONTINUED)

STANDARD
●
4’s objective is to encourage companies to
● communicate the economic value they create.
●

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STANDARD 5

Use “push” technology to to connect

directly with your community

USING opt-in protocols, use “push

communication” to send information to
stakeholders quickly and directly.
Enable continuous and cumulative growth of an online community to
complement standard investor communications channels paying attention to
mobile applications and email alerts.

Value add recommendations:

1. Actively grow a dedicated online community of investors and stakeholders and leverage
that community commercially
2. Building a critical mass in online communities takes time. Be patient. Think long term.
3. Integrate pushed content with social media channels in a complementary manner

STANDARD 5’s objective is to encourage companies

to actively push* their IR information to investors and
stakeholders to grow an identified community.

*Subject to opt-in protocols

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STANDARD 6

Host a modern
functional website

ENSURE your investor relations website or section

is mobile friendly, well populated, functional,
always updated and securely hosted (https).
Consider that your investor relations website should be complete, accurate and
always up to date with meaningful information.

Value add recommendations:

1. Be aware of the key IR information and data to publish
2. Content should be published consistently (using automation tools)
3. Integrate your IR data and news into other channels to grow an omnichannel content
distribution platform

STANDARD 6’s objective is to promote the use of

a modern, secure website to actively promote the
growth of an online community.

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STANDARD 7

Publish corporate governance

executive profiles

PUBLISH updated profiles and experience of the

Board and senior management to ensure their
skills and experience can be appraised.
Value add recommendations:
1. Investors and stakeholders follow executives’ credentials
2. Ensure profiles are well and strategically written
3. Ensure professional imagery is used

STANDARD 7’s objective is to enable investors

to appraise your Board and management’s skill
and experience.

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STANDARD 8

Publish transcripts of virtual

calls and events

PUBLISH the full transcripts of all digital

interactions with all investors resulting from
group conferences, virtual meetings or
teleconference calls.
Ensure your disclosure policy requires this key communications governance
practice to ensure it’s applied consistently, in a timely manner and completely.

Tips:
1. Have a clear understanding of how management and the board engages with the
investment community and capture transcripts
2. Ensure timely publication of transcripts in text online for SEO uplift
3. Consider repurposing published content for social and corporate communications
creative campaigns

STANDARD 8’s objective is to promote complete

transparency and accountability and leverage that to
grow an online community.

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STANDARD 9

Publish key in-demand

investor relations data

PUBLISH key investor information and data on

your company’s website including your share
price, issued shares, dividends and valuation
information (PE Ratio, Dividend Yield, ROE and Price to
Book Value Ratio).

Complement investment data with investor calendar and dividend payment

information dates and integrate into “push” communication channels.

Tips:
1. Avoid out of date or incomplete data
2. Up to date and complete IR data drives website visits and community growth
3. Valuation parameters should be automatically calculated based on TTM (trailing twelve
month data)

STANDARD 9’s objective is to promote your

digital platforms as the key “go to place” for core
investor information.

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STANDARD 10

Publish PDF, news and

presentations archives

PUBLISH archives of logically named PDFs,

corporate news and regulatory announcements
for at least the past 3 years.
Include annual reports, interim reports and investor related announcements,
events and presentations, including transcripts and audio files.

Tips:
1. Ensure continuous and immediate updates when new content is released*
2. Ensure consistency of publication and integrate with “push technology” channels (email
and mobile app)*
3. Consider publishing text in addition to PDF content online to enhance SEO

* only after regulatory publication

STANDARD 10’s objective is to ensure

complete repositories of news and regulatory
announcements and documents.

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STANDARD 11

Publish an IR
knowledge base

PUBLISH an online investor knowledge base of

readily accessible information such as complete
questions and answers (Q & As) arising from
virtual AGMs, investor presentations and common
investor questions.
Value add recommendations:
1. Use an online knowledge base as a complete central repository of information
2. Categorise IR and event information to enable easy access and viewing
3. Integrate this IR resource with commercial information to leverage your commercial brand
and improve ROI

STANDARD 11’s objective is to offer a single online

repository of useful information for investor convenience.

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STANDARD 12

Actively distribute annual report

and proxy voting materials

ADOPT a deliberate policy of ensuring broad

dissemination and immediate and easy access to
your annual report and proxy voting materials.
Acknowledge that you will not be able to reach ALL existing shareholders
directly and extra efforts through a range of digital channels to disseminate your
annual report with proxy voting materials (subject to acceptable access control)
is required.

Value add recommendations:

1. Appraise the effectiveness of annual report and proxy voting materials distribution
quantitatively each year - what % of your investors receive their communications
governance materials?
2. Survey investors’ views of their access and their satisfaction with annual report and proxy
voting materials distribution
3. Use a free or low cost annual report & proxy voting materials distribution service

STANDARD 12’s objective is to ensure that access

to voting materials is certain irrespective of whether
shareholders are in direct contact with the company or not.

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STANDARD 13

Integrate investor content with

social media (with caution)

PUBLISH investor relations information

(prices, documents and news) on social media
consistently, with an objective to promote other
push channels, but do this with caution.
If IR information is published consistently (for a defined set of content) ensure
this content links back to your investor relations corporate website, email list or
mobile app (the “push channels”).

Value add recommendations:

1. Using social media channels as a primary communications tool is not advised because
delivery of content is not direct or immediate or complete. Social channels throttle the
availability of content
2. Publish share price, news and dividends data as a minimum onto social media if adopted
3. Consider sponsoring content, but apply this consistently

STANDARD 13’s objective is to warn you about the

disadvantages of social media channels and to use
them only as secondary channels.

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STANDARD 14

Engage third party news

publishers

ENGAGE third party news and data publishers to

ensure responsible publication of your company
information on their platforms.
Promoting your company’s online visibility will channel readers to your direct
investor communications channels.

Value add recommendations:

1. Deal with reputable news and data publishers.
2. Know what should be published and automate the dissemination of news content via RSS
feeds, or email to ensure reliable and consistent delivery
3. Actively monitor who the influential vendors are of your company news and information

STANDARD 14’s objective is to protect your interests

online and avoid fake or incomplete news.

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STANDARD 15

Leverage investor
relations commercially

ADOPT a policy of showcasing your commercial

offerings to your investors by embedding product
offerings through communications channels.
In the modern day of social and digital media investors are, or should be
pre-qualified customers. They understand your business, have invested in
it, so leverage this relationship commercially to improve monetary ROI of
communications governance.

Value add recommendations:

1. Embed commercial advertising in email alerts and IR materials
2. Survey investors’ support for your commercial offerings and offer discounts
3. Use paid commercial content promotion to retarget investors and vice versa, target
customers, with the investor relations offering

STANDARD 15’s objective is to highlight that

progressive IR initiatives can be paid for.

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STANDARD 16

Enable research analyst and

broker coverage

PROVIDE curated financial model data to enable

equity analysts and brokers to cover your
company with less resources.
Sell side research has fallen dramatically and buy side analysts and brokers have
limited resources. Providing them with easily accessible and complete data
encourages greater coverage of your profile to investors.

Value add recommendations:

1. Publish data related to key drivers of business success operational and financial
2. Automate the publication of the data above
3. Verify shared data and define a policy of its periodic update

STANDARD 16’s objective is to highlight that research

coverage of companies has fallen dramatically and
analysts can be assisted with basic data.

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About AfricanFinancials
We assist African stock market listed company executives that care, to grow
and manage dedicated online communities with which to communicate with
and receive feedback, enabling them to manage reputation risk and improve
communications governance.

Additionally, we contextualise listed companies’ online investor relations practices within a

digital and communications governance strategy (however simple) to earn a commercial
return.

The Minimum Standards of Online Investor Relations<> is our initiative to assist executives
achieve world class communications governance.

DOWNLOAD The Minimum Standards of Online Investor Relations

Africanfinancials.com is our pan-African investor relations community dedicated to ensuring

that the documents, prices and news of African stock market listed companies are freely and
widely available. The Investor Mailing List is our initiative to push the prices, annual reports and
earnings releases of companies listed on African stock markets to a global investor community.

africanfinancials.com | theinvestormailinglist.com

Join us on LinkedIn
Rob Stangroom Investor Relations Services
www.linkedin.com/in/robstangroom www.linkedin.com/showcase/online-investor-relations

Digital Transformation For Investors In African Stock Markets

www.linkedin.com/showcase/transition-to-digital www.linkedin.com/company/theinvestormailinglist

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 ROB STANGROOM
+263 777 394265
rob@africanfinancials.com

Rob is a Chartered Accountant with

24 years sub-Saharan capital markets
advisory experience and 10 years
experience in digital marketing, with
a focus on online investor relations.
He advises companies on digital
and capital markets communications
strategies

CONTACT ME

rob@africanfinancials.com