How to switch investor relations firms: a checklist for small public companies

01Signs it is time to look

Companies change investor relations firms for a short list of reasons. Meetings happen but nothing comes back about what the fund thought. Reports count activity, such as calls made and releases sent, instead of who owns the stock and who changed their position. Drafts come back in a form the chief financial officer has to rewrite. Or the firm is built for a different kind of company, larger or more retail-focused, than the one paying it.

Check the shareholder register before you decide. Investment managers with $100 million or more in US-listed stocks report their holdings on Form 13F within 45 days of each quarter end, so you can see for yourself which funds arrived and which left during the engagement. If the register has not moved after several quarters of meetings, that is the conversation to have with your current firm first.

02Start with the engagement letter

Find four things in it: the term, whether it renews on its own, the notice period, and who owns the work. If it renews automatically, the date that matters is the last day you can give notice, not the end of the term. Note any fees that run through the notice period so the budget for the new firm starts on the right date.

Ownership of the work matters more than it looks. The investor presentation, the fact sheet, the earnings script and the investor website may sit in the firm's files or on its accounts. Agree in writing what comes back to you, and in what format, before the relationship ends.

03What to take back

Ask for an export of everything below while the relationship is still working. It is easier to get than after notice, and the new firm will need all of it in its first month.

• The investor contact log: every fund met, when, who was in the room, and what they asked.
• Feedback notes from conferences and roadshows, including funds that passed and why.
• Your shareholder and email distribution lists, where the people on them asked to hear from the company.
• The investor website: the domain, the hosting, and administrator logins in the company's name.
• Newswire, webcast and conference call accounts, moved into the company's name.
• Source files for the investor presentation and fact sheet, not just the PDFs.
• The last earnings script and the bank of likely questions.
• Conferences and meetings already booked for the coming months.

04Timing around earnings

Change firms in the weeks after an earnings call. A new firm that starts just before a call inherits a script it did not write and questions it has not prepared for. One that starts just after has a full quarter to learn the company, build the target list and prepare the next call properly.

Check the conference calendar at the same time. If the old firm booked one-on-ones at a conference in the next two months, decide who runs them and tell the organiser, so the meetings are not lost in the handover.

05Telling the market

Changing investor relations firms is not usually material on its own, so most companies say nothing beyond updating the investor relations contact. Change it on the investor website and in the contact block of the next press release on the same day. If you are unsure whether the change needs any filing, ask your securities counsel.

06What to ask the next firm

Ask the questions that would have caught the old problem early. Which funds will they put you in front of, by name, and why those funds? What will they report back each quarter: activity, or who owns you, who added and who left? Is every figure they publish tied to a filing with a date? Who does the work day to day? And what happens to your records if you leave them, in writing, now.

You can test the first question before you sign with anyone. Krypton AI sends officers and investor relations staff of US-listed companies a free one to two page report, at kryptonai.io/investor-view, that lists the funds whose latest 13F filings hold at least two of your closest peers and none of your stock. Whichever firm you choose, it gives you a list to hold it to.

07A four-week handover

Most of the work fits in a month if it is done in order.

• Week one: read the engagement letter, request the exports, list the accounts to move into the company's name.
• Week two: give notice, sign the new firm, and share the records with it.
• Week three: move the website, newswire and webcast accounts, and update the investor contact everywhere it appears.
• Week four: agree the target list and the quarterly report format with the new firm, and book the first meetings.