IR Monitor – 4 June 2025

In this week’s newsletter:

• British companies should learn to speak American: bridging the language gap could attract more US investors, according to the Financial Times
• FTSE annual reports now longer than The Da Vinci Code reports The Telegraph: a growing list of regulations forces companies to churn out novel-length updates
• Solid earnings season marred by investors’ new fears over outlook, reports The Wall Street Journal. Prominent U.S. companies have acknowledged the unpredictability of the trade-war by yanking or dialing back their financial forecasts
• Listings drought ‘won’t end until burnt investors believe again’; Baillie Gifford suggests the decline in share prices since the 2021 IPO boom has left markets suspicious of companies looking to float in the absence of strong fundamentals
• Not so golden? The New York Times on the allure (& complications) of ‘Golden Shares’
• And finally … the Proxies 2025: a celebration of wonderful corporate perks and woeful IR

This week’s news

British companies bridging the language gap – Financial Times

It’s no secret that returns from the FTSE 100 are significantly lower than from its American counterparts. British boardrooms hoping to lure US capital might do well to reconsider how they speak to investors, The Financial Times writes. While much handwringing has focused on making the London market “more American” in returns generated, a more immediate fix may lie in language – not accent, but accessibility. British firms often still tailor their communications as though pitching to a traditional UK fund manager, who is acquainted with the market and understands the company. Instead, companies could consider more fulsome quarterly reporting, allowing investors less familiar with the company to be up to date. Bridging this gap doesn’t require turning London into Silicon Valley – just a willingness to speak the same financial language.

Uptick in lengthy reports faces backlash from the QCA

As annual reporting season draws to a close, The Telegraph analyses companies’ lengthy reports which have been produced by FTSE 100 – increasing by a staggering 27% in length since 2019. Even AIM-listed firms – traditionally spared the full weight of regulation – are not immune, with average reports now longer than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This explosion in length is being driven by increasingly complex regulatory demands and rising expectations around transparency on issues like executive pay, diversity, and climate risk. ESG sections alone have ballooned 236 % in six years, averaging 11,000 words. Yet rather than enlightening investors, such exhaustive detail may be obscuring the very information it aims to highlight. James Ashton, QCA’s chief executive, warns that reports are becoming bloated and ineffective, arguing it’s time to “call a halt” to the excess and refocus on what truly matters to investors.

Unpredictable US tariffs lead to dialing back of financial forecasts

A growing number of major US and European companies are pulling back their financial forecasts due to uncertainty caused by the ongoing trade war and economic volatility. According to the Wall Street Journal, the reluctance to give financial forecasts also shows the degree to which executives lack visibility into the current state of the economy. Executives such as UPS’s Chief Executive Carol Tomé say that tariffs have become a major point of uncertainty and that “the only thing we’re certain of is we don’t know which, if any, of our scenarios will play out.” JetBlue, for example, is considering retooling its fleet and targeting more cost savings to boost profitability and preserve cash as it expects to face lower travel demand. Due to the Trump administration’s ever-changing and shifting tariff policy, it is no wonder business leaders across the political divide are quite anxious.

2021 IPO boom has left market suspicious – The Times

According to Peter Singlehurst, who leads private company investments at Baillie Gifford, the market for initial public offerings will not recover until investors regain trust in the companies looking to list. Analysis by the investment management firm has shown that the payments company Stripe and the analytics business Databricks have together raised more capital through secondary private share sales in recent years than the entire tech sector has via listings. The Times reports that, since the post-Covid boom, IPO activity has slowed in the UK and US as venture capital and private equity sponsors struggle to convince private investors that it is worth listing. Historically, stock markets have been the main way for companies to gain access to capital and for investors to participate in the growth of high-potential businesses; however, those who have gone public since 2021, such as dating app Bumble, have experienced a poor post-IPO performance which has made public investors wary of taking similar risks again. 

‘Golden Shares’ in the USA

According to the New York Times, Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel is a potential watershed moment for the role of government in American industry. The reported conditions, which include an American CEO, a US majority board and a “golden share” which can grant the US government veto power over certain corporate functions and board appointments, are unheard of. Golden share transactions have never been undertaken before by the US government as part of a deal with a foreign company. Golden share arrangements have been used by the UK, Brazil and China to grant the government veto power over the decisions of a company partially owned by the government, often following privatization or significant public investment. As the NYT warns, it is easy to imagine a future in which an ideological administration might use its golden share to push for board shake-ups, headquarters relocations or production quotas – all of which might well run counter to the interests of the business or shareholders.

And finally… the Proxies 2025!

The FT Alphaville returns with its Proxies 2025 awards list, compiling the best and most excessive executive compensations. Highlights from this edition include a $10K gift card and discount on Lands’ End merchandise, a $14k reimbursement for parking spaces and over $4m for CEO private security. At the more modest end of the spectrum, Starbucks executives really hit the jackpot with a $36 tax related payment for their Spotify premium accounts. These excessive earnings have resulted in shareholders becoming increasingly unhappy at bearing the costs that these executive benefits bring. Some companies have even resorted to implementing caps on executive spending for future years – could the Proxies be entering their wind down phase?