IR Monitor – 20 August 2025

In this week’s newsletter:

• What can IR teams do when Donald Trump makes demands of your CEO?  IR Magazine believes it’s still worth preparing for the unlikely eventuality
• IPO drought: Investment bankers look elsewhere to keep busy, reports The Financial Times
• Tariffs & earnings calls: A reality IROs are trying to manage, says PR Week
• If you can’t beat them, join them: McKinsey believes publicly listed companies can learn from PE funds to create long-term value
• Texas or bust: The New York Times on Texas’s recent bills that impact shareholder rights
• And finally … giving critics the cold shoulder does CEOs no favours, according to Ian King at The Times

This week’s news

What can IR teams do when Donald Trump makes demands of your CEO? 

Since President Donald Trump’s second term began, some investor relations teams have faced an unusual challenge: managing public criticisms directed at CEOs by the sitting president himself. Recent targets have included Intel’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Goldman Sachs’ CEO David Solomon. The President’s comments are directed at a range of topics, including corporate policy and potential party affiliations – and they have real consequences on the share prices of the companies that are targeted. For example, Intel’s shares dropped following the President’s criticism of the CEO’s connection with China (but recovered after the company expressed support for the Administration). 

According to IR Magazine, preparation is key. IR teams can get started by first realising it could happen to them. Scenario planning and drafting holding statements is the next sensible step. 

IPO drought: Investment bankers look elsewhere to keep busy, reports The Financial Times

The London IPO market is in the doldrums it would not be an exaggeration to say. It is at a 30-year low (with 10 IPOs this year versus 125 in 2021). Instead of advising on listings, investment banks have been more focused on advisory, which includes helping a company with its results announcements and capital market events as well as advising on capital allocation and defence against an unwanted takeover approach or an activist. This is something corporate brokers traditionally held the pen on but as the market evolves, so do the roles. This could mean the IRO function finds itself outsourced to financial advisors but there is a silver lining: the secondary market. According to The Financial Times, “LSE data shows that there was about £14.6 billion of secondary selling on the main market last year, compared with about £6.5 billion in 2024 and 2023.” This will be music to IROs’ ears as many investors still see a company’s in-house IR team as the best source of insight into the business and its equity story. 

Tariffs & earnings calls: A reality IROs are trying to manage, says PR Week

The resurgence of tariffs as a central theme in U.S. corporate earnings calls is a challenge that places investor relations teams on the front line, says PR Week. With more than 2,000 American companies referencing tariffs in Q2, it is evident investors are acutely aware of their potential impact and are scrutinising the numbers and narratives of corporates to better understand just how vulnerable their investments are to these factors. For IR professionals, the main goal is to not shy away. Instead, be clear without being fatalistic and show how they are being both managed and mitigated. For example, Tesla and General Motors admitted to multi-billion-dollar tariff headwinds but reassured investors by outlining how they were combatting them.  

If you can’t beat them, join them: McKinsey believes publicly listed companies can learn from PE funds to create long-term value

If PE-backed businesses “have consistently outperformed their public counterparts,” then they must be doing something right. In this article, McKinsey homes in on public equity funds’ portfolio companies’ Boards and their value-creation strategies – including having “uncomfortable but necessary” conversations around the boardroom table, ensuring each Board member knows exactly what is expected (e.g. create value or see ya) and engage with stakeholders. According to McKinsey research, “ PE-backed company board directors, when compared with public-company ones, spend 55% more time engaging with shareholders, 41% more time with management, and 19% more time with customers and employees” – an incredible amount of 1:1 interaction that is sure to uncover some important insights into the business and the sector in which it operates.

Texas or bust: The New York Times on Texas’s recent bills that impact shareholder rights

Publicly listed companies are owned by their shareholders and therefore they hold the power, writes The New York Times. However in Texas, companies’ management teams are taking the power back due to some new bills that were passed that, for example, avoid shareholder-launched lawsuits, restrict shareholder proposals and reduce proxy advisors’ sway. This has led to several companies reincorporating in Texas. While these bills may look attractive to some management teams, “The result is to significantly water down shareholder protections,” says Séverine Neervoort (Global Policy Director at International Corporate Governance Network) and could very well repel new shareholders from taking a serious look at these companies. 

And finally… giving critics the cold shoulder does CEOs no favours

Chief executives often face challenging and uncomfortable questions from analysts, writes Ian King for The Times. Some companies try to avoid these moments by engaging only with friendly analysts but recent research shows that companies actually benefit when they face their critics directly. Research published by Boise State University shows that meaningfully engaging with an “unfavourable analyst” meant the company’s rating was 40% more likely to receive an upgrade compared to that of an analyst who is bearish on the stock and didn’t ask a question. But what does “meaningful” actually mean? The answer has to be long and informative; a “no comment” or similar won’t cut it.