“For share register analysis, do companies tend to use a specialist Investor Relations firm or their own Registrars? Our Registrars have advised that they have the advantage of providing access to the most up to date information as T +3 will allow in comparison with the reports provided by our Investor Relations firm which may be up to and over one month old. We have been advised elsewhere however that specialist providers tend to provide a better quality product in comparison with Registrars. What services do other companies use?”
Our brokers did it within their fee, but have just announced they are outsourcing to Orient Capital. We are assured there will be no cost increase……..
We used to use our Broker for this service, but the results were fairly poor quality. We switched to use RD:IR about 7/8 years ago and they are excellent. This is the core focus of their business so the work product is far superior, they have good relationships with all the custodians so find it much easier to cajole the information from them on a timely basis. They receive details of significant movements on our account daily and the full register from our Registrar once a month so that they can update their analysis. They provide an “official” report once a month, but if there is a concern about a specific holding or we need an update for a particular reason, they will provide an “immediate” service. (We also have access to the database ourselves). I cannot sing their praises highly enough, they’ve been key during projects in recent years such as our de-registration from the SEC and 2009 rights issue. Other advisors involved on these projects have been impressed with their work product too.
Our brokers do this monthly and advise us of s793 requests which we send.
Our brokers have historically provided the service, taking the register from the Registrar, submitting s.793 requests via the Registrar and carrying out the analysis in-house. The cost is absorbed within the annual fee. We have been satisfied with the results and, despite hard selling by the Registrar, have felt more confident relying on the brokers for this service. The brokers have just outsourced the service for a temporary period whilst they upgrade their own systems so it will be interesting to compare the results.
Our brokers used to provide a share register analysis service but actually they subcontracted out the work. Reliability and timescales dipped over time. We therefore looked at other options and our Registrar was very keen to take on the work. We have found the quality of their share register analysis to be better than brokers and much more timely at T+5.
Our brokers do everything, taking the register from the Registrar, analysing and sending out 793 letters where they find gaps. Since they do this for many clients they have built up an expertise and a substantial database of the designated accounts and their underlying holders. We put a holding size limit on their analysis. They still analyse a significant portion of the register but it means they are focussing on the holders we are really interested in. We can view their analysis via their online web-based application.
We used to do the 793 letters ourselves and provide the results to our brokers who use them to provide the analysis 6 times per annum (based on a report from the registrars). We have 7000 shareholders and this is entirely adequate for our purposes. We do monitor weekly trading and investigate any unusual movements with the help of our registrars and brokers.
We used to use a broker to undertake share register analysis, but they relied on the registrar to send of 793 notices. Broker knew the fund managers better than the registrar and would have more idea of the beneficial holders and their views on certain matters. We now use our registrar (who employ some of the people that were previously employed by the broker). We are happy with what we receive and the registrar does manage our share register, so they can look at movements T+3. Overall it depends on what you are looking for in terms of in depth analysis and shareholder views.
We have historically asked our registrars for an up to date shareholder register and then passed this on the Thomson Reuters to do more detailed analysis. Our NOMAD (Altium) put us in touch with Thomson. We have found the information is timely and useful but one of the biggest problems we found was with shares held in nominee accounts. Getting visibility on those was time consuming and the use of external providers in this area proved invaluable.
Adrian