Cinaport Blog

Heisler Communications is pleased to announce the addition of its new investor relations service offering.

The service offering includes strategic counsel and message development, crafting communications materials for various audiences (including current and prospective investors, bankers, brokers and analysts), targeted investor outreach, and developing and implementing digital communications strategies (including websites and social media).  

Heisler Communications can also assist private companies preparing to go public – working closely with investment bankers and other advisors to develop marketing materials, and coaching to help clients understand what it truly means to become a public company.   

For more information on Heisler Communications, visit www.heislercommunications.com

Last December, HSBC released a 244-page report called ‘Inside the growth engine’, which is arguably the most comprehensive summary of China’s economic engine. The report highlight the strengths, challenges and the five-year plans of the 31 provinces, as well as details of economic activities, statistics and strategic plans down to the level of 21 major cities. 

At the start of the report, the authors list some lesser known facts about China, including the following: 

#1) Beijing is China’s Silicon Valley

The Zhongguancun area saw 23 high-tech IPOs in 2009, against just one for Silicon Valley. There were another 35 IPOs in 2010 as of the date of the report. 

#2) The richest city is in the poor northwest

Erdos, a city rich in natural resources in the otherwise poor western part of China, is expected to have a higher GDP per capita than Hong Kong in three years time. 

#3) There is a place where ‘Heaven on earth’ means ‘business is booming’

Suzhou, with a population of 6.3m people, is best known for its classical gardens and parks that have been dubbed ‘Heaven on earth’ by locals and tourists. What is less well know is that it has the highest per capita GDP among China’s large cities which is 70% and 46% higher than Beijing and Shanghai, respectively. 

#4) The rising star in the Yangtze River Delta

Suzhou’s parent province of Jiangsu, situated in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), is poised to overtake the southern province of Guangdong to become China’s largest provincial economy as early as 2012. 

#5) China’s richest Village

Among the 1m villages- the lowest unit in the administrative chain- Huaxi is China’s richest village. Dating back to 2005, every family in Huaxi has had a net worth of more than RMB 1 million. The village enterprise is a company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange with a current market capitalization of more than RMB7.3 billion or USD 1.1 billion. 

You can download HSBC's full report at:

http://219.219.191.244:1980/upload/jinrong/201012/HSBC.pdf

Should public companies be using online sharing tools as another means to get their investment story told?  One thing I am confident of – if planned and implemented correctly, using SlideShare as part of your overall investor relations program can be an effective and inexpensive way for attracting new audiences to your investment story.  This brief presentation takes a look at some of the rationale that should at least have IROs and C-level executives thinking about adopting the use of SlideShare as part of their IR program.

View more presentations from Cinaport Financial Services Inc. 

I also recommend you read ‘10 examples of SlideShare for investor relations’ posted by Dominc Jones at IR Web Report back in February of this year.

A recent review by the Canadian Securities Administrators found that 55% of issuers were deficient in their corporate governance disclosure, based on a sample size of more than 70 issuers. The review identified areas for improvement of disclosure related to issuers’ boards of directors, position descriptions, and nomination of directors, among other things.

Here is the excerpt from CSA Staff Notice 51-334 - Continuous Disclosure Review Program, dated July 15, 2011:

Related post: Investors shouldn't have to leave your website for corporate governance information

A recent post in Eric Jackson's 'Tech and China' blog provided some words of wisdom that need repeating regarding investing in Chinese companies. His comments were specific to tech companies, however the following tidbits should at least be considered by anyone interested in China-based companies, tech or otherwise, listed in North America or wherever else.

 “With the recent downturn, more Americans will throw in the towel on many of these lesser known Chinese names. That’s exactly why you should start paying attention to them and look for some hidden gems in the months ahead.”

“But do your due diligence. There will definitely be winners and some big losers in the months ahead from the recent IPO crop.”

You can read Eric’s full write up in his post titled, In New Crop of Chinese IPOs, Is There Another Baidu?

Related: Looking for bargains in Sino-Forest's shadow via The Globe and Mail

Last week, Cinaport was host to the Vice Mayor and a small delegation from the municipal government of Xinzheng.  The city has a population of about 600,000 and neighbours (in fact, used to be a part of) the city of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province (population of about 100 million). Xinzheng and surrounding areas have a diversified economy with concentrations of heavy industry and agriculture. 

The Vice Mayor and his team were visiting to learn more about Canadian capital markets and the process for taking Chinese companies public on the TSX and TSX Venture exchanges. 

Our team looks forward to building a long and fruitful relationship with the government of Xinzheng as well as partnering with strong, growing companies in the area.

View more presentations from Cinaport Financial Services Inc. 

Recommended reading: Miners take investor relations to Facebook: 10 examples | by IR Web Report

A quality investor relations website is a valuable dissemination tool that can inform and influence opinion.  Given the size of audience that it is possible to reach, it pays to develop the most content rich site possible. Having rich, up-to-date content is key to building a quality investor relations website.  The most oft cited frustration for online audiences is out-of-date information.  Posting new content as soon as it is available, periodically reviewing all content for relevance and checking links to ensure that older information is still accessible are all ways to increase user satisfaction. 

With increasing competition for investor dollars, a robust, user-friendly IR section can support the generation of new interest in your company while at the same time ensuring that existing shareholders have quick and easy access to the information they require.  A quality IR website can also “level the playing field” among issuers as it is relatively easy (and relatively inexpensive) for a smaller issuer to provide the same level of information to investors as a larger one. 

The website and all other electronic disclosure media should be considered an extension of your normal disclosure practices and are therefore subject to the same laws, rules and regulations.  At least in Canada, the corporate website is not a substitute for regular continuous disclosure through an approved newswire, but rather an adjunct to proper disclosure practices.  The IR section should provide a constant flow of valuable supplementary information to all investors on a regular basis, keeping them well informed and allowing them to make quality investment decisions. 

Recommended reading: 

Website disclosure means more and better communication

Investors shouldn't have to leave your website for corporate governance information 

Corporate governance should be a section in the main navigation of a company’s investor relations website. In addition to listing all of the directors and providing their bios, best practice is to include details of key charters and policies (or, preferably, the actual charters and policies in their entirety). 

Rather than asking investors to search for corporate governance materials elsewhere on their own, or helping them leave your website by providing a link to SEDAR (notice the absence of a link here), why not provide these materials directly on your website. Investors will appreciate the convenience afforded and, as an added benefit, you keep them on your website rather than losing them to a third party site.