How the Portuguese utility firm went from 500th to the top 50 in a year
REN – Redes Energéticas Nacionais – has moved dramatically up the IR Magazine Euro Top 100 rankings: from not even featuring in the list back in 2014, it then came in at exactly 500th last year. Now it’s jumped 452 places to an extremely impressive joint 48th in 2016.
So what have REN's IR director Ana Fernandes and her two colleagues Alexandra Martins and Telma Mendes been up to at the Portuguese utility company? Here’s one answer, from a buy-sider in Portugal: ‘Ana Fernandes... puts a lot of effort into her working relationship with the investment community. Over the past year we have built a good relationship, she has accepted our requests for meetings overseas and helped us to get management in front of clients on reverse roadshows.’
For her part, Fernandes notes a number of factors, including an increase in liquidity following the sale by the Portuguese government of its final 11 percent stake in the company, and a slight expansion ‘of our presence, although we haven’t increased the number of meetings much.’
REN’s IR department has also launched a sophisticated app ‒ of which it’s justifiably proud ‒ that has been well received by the investment community. Analysts are regularly supplied with quarterly numbers so they can update their models, for instance. Fernandes’ team also provides new consensus numbers on a quarterly basis.
All these developments have gone down well but perhaps the key to the dramatic improvement in the research is the IR team’s strong relationship with investors and analysts, based on trust.
That was probably what made Fernandes feel comfortable about emailing her investor and analyst contacts this year to encourage them to participate in the research; and it was surely what made them decide to do so and cast their votes in favor of REN.
This profile was adapted from the IR Magazine Investor Perception Survey – Europe 2016
