The telecoms major and IR Magazine awards regular discusses highlights of its IR program
China Telecom’s multi-award-winning IR team, which is based in Hong Kong, comprises eight individuals in all, led by head of IR Deng Xiaofeng. The other team members are Ou Yan, Lisa Lai, Kerry Chu, Rebecca Wong, Ivan Wong, Michelle Lam and Mimosa Chow.
Ivan Wong stresses that ‘all the staff at China Telecom, especially senior management, attach great importance to corporate governance, transparency and integrity’. He describes this as ‘crucial’ and says the attitude of management is ‘helpful to our IR work and investor communications’. For him, ‘one of the key IR functions is to serve as a communications bridge between the company and the investment community, explaining accurately and clearly to investors and the public the convincing corporate strategy set by the senior management.’
This also involves collecting ‘the valuable opinions of investors and the public, and reporting these back to our senior management team for its consideration.’
‘We also attach strong importance to maintaining regular and proactive communications with shareholders, investors and analysts in different parts of the world,’ Wong continues. That’s one reason why the firm took part in several major European events last year, such as the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Technology, Media & Telecom Conference and non-deal roadshow in Europe as well as the HSBC Annual Asia Investor Forum in London.
The company was active in the US, too, with the Macquarie Greater China Corporate Day and non-deal roadshow in July and the HSBC Sixth Annual Asia Investor Forum and non-deal roadshow in November. And it established an ADR program, aiming for ‘broader and more diversified investor exposure, and enhanced visibility in a marketplace outside the home country.’ Back in Asia, meanwhile, the team participated in 26 conferences, most of them in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore.
This profile first appeared in the IR Magazine Investor Perception Study – Asia 2015/2016, which is available to professional subscribers of IR Magazine