Listed company communication and transparency enhanced

The widely reported communication difficulties between companies and the investment community have been alleviated thanks to a new website, boardroomradio.com, which makes it easier for the two to communicate.

Small to medium cap companies typically find it difficult to attract the attention on analysts, the media and investors, especially around reporting season.  Many factors contribute towards this issue. 

The rules about when companies release their annual and half yearly results have been changed.  The rule allows up to two months, in effect one month, as more than 1,250 companies compete for attention of analysts, investors and the media.  

Additionally, last financial year, there were almost 100,000 company announcements posted on ASX, around 60 per company, per year.  25 percent were tagged ‘market sensitive’, as many again may be considered so by investors, or more importantly, potential investors.   With such a huge number of announcements, it is difficult for companies to provide investors with a full picture of their position. 

boardroomradio.com.au, established by Bill Gair, co-founder of travel.com and lastminute.com in Australia , and John Murray, of Bell Potter, allows companies to broadcast their telephone briefings to analysts and investors, via the internet.  

The founders say that they have launched this site in an effort to help companies compete for analyst and institutional investor time and to provide retail investors with the same level of information enjoyed by those invited to attend regular company briefings. 

John Murray, Joint Founder, said: “During reporting season, and really at any time of year with the continuous disclosure regime, it is easy for top tier companies to get the analysts along to their briefings.  This is certainly not the case for those companies that fall outside the top 50.”  “We believe this site is ideal for large companies who can use boardroomradio.com to better manage their communications, middle tier Australian corporations, who seek to keep their investors informed of developments and any company who wishes to broaden and deepen the reach of their message.”

“Providing all investors with access to live briefings enhances transparency and makes it easy for analysts, fund managers and everyday investors to have a full picture of the companies’ position.  The law requires companies to report twice a year, and continuous disclosure where appropriate.  This fills the gap and helps create a medium piece periodic report.”   

“In the past 20 years, listed companies have developed their institutional investor relations function. It is now time for companies to work in the same way with private investors. These investors are generally not reviewing their positions quarterly, they provide companies with the patient capital which is essential for long term development,.”

Bill Gair , Managing Director, said: “One of the great lessons from my previous experience at travel.com.au and lastminute.com.au, is that technology must make life easier if it is to succeed.  With boardroomradio.com we are using the best available technology that is simple to use and, because we will be aggregating the cost, inexpensive to operate, resulting in significant savings for our customers.” 

boardroomradio is available for all listed companies, with one flat, annual fee, which provides companies with up to 15 briefings. 

For further information, please visit www.boardroomradio.com. 

What others have to say:

"boardroomradio will be a valuable tool to help us manage our time and connect with companies whose stories we wouldn't normally hear"
Ben Griffths
Eley Griffiths Group

“Products like boardroomradio will allow us to keep in touch with more companies, hear their news live and refer to archived presentations"

Michael Brooks,
Investment Mgr,
St Helens Investment Management

Bill Gair

Bill is a co-founder and Managing Director of boardroomradio. He is a graduate in Financial Management from New York University  (1991) and is an e-commerce pioneer having co-founded one of the first commercial web sites in Australia, travel.com.au, in September 1997, and most recently was the CEO of travel.com.au Limited and lastminute.com Australia . Bill's experience running a publicly listed company means he understands the challenges a company faces in communicating its investment attractions to the market.

John Murray

John has more than 20 years experience in the Securities Industry, both in Australia and the UK . For the last 12 years John has been an Advisor with Bell Potter, specialising in the Mid Cap area, advising clients and companies. His experience in this field has made him acutely aware of the need for companies to get their message heard, the importance of relating to private client shareholders in the same way a company would relate to institutional shareholders and adherence to continuous disclosure.

About Boardroom Radio

Launched in 2005, Boardroom Radio is a unique investor relations portal designed to help Australian listed companies communicate with the spectrum of current and potential investors. Through a comprehensive online information and delivery platform, Boardroom Radio uses the latest technology to communicate company information clearly, simply and cost effectively. Boardroom Radio broadcasts deliver a company’s message to a potential audience of more than 500,000 investors through a range of distribution partners including financial information portals, broker websites, share trading chat rooms, industry bodies and other relevant financial entities. The service is available for all listed companies, with one flat, annual fee designed to encourage small and medium cap companies to embrace their investor relations opportunities. For further information, including a list of distribution partners, please visit www.brr.com.au  

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