Health Care Case Study
Situation
A micro-cap UK-based health care company with no operations in the U.S., and paying no dividends, expressed an interest in raising its profile among the U.S. investment community.
Strategy & Tactics
Drawing upon its understanding of how to incentivize investors to spend time learning a new company, ICR's health care team positioned the UK-based client as a potential source of diversification away from the political uncertainty that prevailed in the U.S. (and virtually paralyzed many health care investors) in late 2009. ICR worked with the client to revamp its investment thesis to better showcase secular and company-specific growth drivers that would offset macro-economic challenges. By reviewing comparable companies, ICR identified the key analysts who were influential in the relevant health care sub-sector, then leveraged its deep Wall Street relationship network to facilitate introductions. During the initial outreach, about 20 sell-side analysts accepted invitations for meetings and conference calls with senior management. On the buy-side front, ICR had extensive conversations with the client's top institutional holders and launched a pro-active outreach campaign to target numerous funds investing in the client's sector, which contributed to a significantly elevated awareness of the company among institutional investors.
Results
Within the first 12 months, the number of covering analysts increased from one to four. Whereas the client appeared at an average of one conference per year in the years prior to engaging ICR, it secured six invitations to major investor events in the first year after partnering with us. Additionally, several new funds initiated positions in the client's stock, while some of its long-term institutional investors increased their holdings.