F E AT U R E D A R T I C L E
Capital Markets Visibility Program Drives Investor Engagement for Smallcap and OTC Companies PR Newswire’s New 12-month Calendared Investor Relations Strategy Is Easy and Affordable to Implement
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f you’re reading this Micro-Cap Review, chances are, you are well aware of the devastating impact the financial environment has had on small and micro-cap com-
panies. Simply: money is harder to raise, investors are hard to indentify and getting any notice from the financial press and portfolio managers is beyond challenging.
To help companies simultaneously address all those issues, PR Newswire - the global leader in news and information distribution services for professional communicators – has launched Capital Markets Visibility 365 ™, their newest service SPECIFICALLY built for small-cap and micro-cap companies. To explain the program, Micro-Cap Review sat down with John M. Viglotti, VP of Investor Relations and Compliance Services at PR Newswire. M-CR: What was the genesis of Capital Markets Visibility 365?
n BY ShELDon “ShELLY” KRAFT
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Micro-Cap Review Magazine
JMV: Most professional investor relations tools are not created for smaller listed companies. We have identified that, across the entire capital markets landscape, thousands of small-cap, OTC and TSX listed companies are being underserved and ignored by many investor relations service providers. M-CR: Why are small companies “underserved and ignored?” JMV: In my opinion, most large IR service providers have placed all their sales focus exclusively on mid to mega-cap companies and big-ticket products like stock surveillance. They have neither the sales bandwidth nor the support resources to execute a product specially created for small-cap and OTC listed companies. This has left an “IR void” that has, unfortunately been filled by stock promotion. M-CR: What do small-cap and OTC companies need? JMV: They need investors and influencers to hear their story AND they need to deliver their story in a consistent and contiguous manner.
M-CR: “Consistent and contiguous manner” – thus the 12-month program? JMV: Yes. Capital Market Visibility 365 is a calendared strategic marketing plan. Once it is set-up, it almost runs on auto-pilot. M-CR: The program addresses three targeted audiences. Why? JMV: Without exaggeration, our clients’ shareholder messages will reach a targeted audience of hundreds of thousands. Each of the targets delivers different value to small-cap and OTC companies: Individual investors for immediate liquidity and (hopefully) “buy & hold” loyalty. Institutional investors for dramatic volume activity and Wall Street visibility. Financial and sector media (and bloggers) for third-party validation. M-CR: Will institutional investors have interest in companies under $100 million market-cap? JMV: Smart buy-side and sell-side analysts keep an eye on all companies within their sector, even if a specific company is too
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