1. A Cross Border publication www.InsideInvestorRelations.com
In the summer of 2012, as part of IR Magazine’s global IRO survey, we
asked a number of questions relating to IR departmental responsibility,
outsourcing and external IR service provision. Findings from these
questions went on to be used in the IR Magazine Global Practice Report
2012 and were expanded upon in last month’s article on IR outsourcing
(see Letting the outside in, February 2013, page 8).
One question from this survey that we have not reported upon – until
now – concerns IROs’ favorite service providers: we asked respondents to
name their first, second and third-favorite service providers, the services
they provide and their reasons for choosing them. The question was
asked more for our own curiosity than for the compiling of a formal
ranking, but the results have proved too interesting to keep to ourselves.
Although the initial question was asked in an informal manner, we
have analyzed the results with the same rigorous methodology we use for
our IR Magazine Awards, with a system of points allocated proportionately
to first, second and third favorites. More than 450 individual ‘votes’ on
IR service provision around the world are represented here.
Satisfying
our curiosity
March 2013
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Lloyd Bevan unearths some interesting results from
last year’s IRO survey

2. research
30 www.InsideInvestorRelations.com | March 2013 IR MAGAZINE
T
he IR Magazine annual surveys of investor
relations practice around the world ask IROs
numerous questions about their working lives:
how many people they have in their teams; how long
they’ve been in IR; which cities they travel to on
roadshows; how much they’re paid; how much input
they get from senior management; and much more
besides. We publish the results of these surveys both
online and in a series of hard-copy publications, from
the substantial annual IR Magazine Global Practice
Report to smaller reports on roadshows, for instance,
or crisis management or say on pay.
It’s all good serious stuff but, in a more light-hearted
vein, in last year’s survey we also asked respondents to
name their favorite service providers – in fact, their
top three favorites – and to tell us what they use them
for and why they like them so much.
Of course, relationships between clients and service
providers vary enormously: some are very business-
like, others more personal; some are short term, others
go on for years, even decades, with a real sense of
loyalty and trust being established between service
provider and client. The difference may just be a
feature of the nature of the work or a product of
the personalities involved.
Without going into such matters in far more
detail, it’s hard to be sure which ones fall into which
categories, but the reasons given by companies for
favoring certain consultants and advisers over others
betray some broad groups.
Leader of the pack
Take Thomson Reuters, far and away the most
popular service provider not just globally but also
in each of the three biggest geographical groups of
Europe, Asia and North America. IROs selecting
Thomson as their favorite cited a whole range of services
provided to them by the group, from targeting and
shareholder ID to webcasts, consensus earnings
estimates, FirstCall, and more. As for clients’ reasons
Which is your favorite
service provider?
favorite service providers: Global
Provider Points
1 Thomson Reuters 322
2 Ipreo 166
3 Orient Capital 63
4 Shareholder.com 46
5 Computershare 39
6 King Worldwide 36
=7 MZ 35
=7 NASDAQ 35
9 Bloomberg 31
=10 FTI consulting 30
=10 Georgeson 30
IR Magazine founder Janet Dignan assesses the comments of the
IROs who responded, and gives her take on the findings

3. IR MAGAZINE March 2013 | www.InsideInvestorRelations.com 31
RESEARCH
for citing Thomson Reuters as their favorite, these
were many and various, too. Many mentioned the
breadth of the company’s offerings, the length of
their relationship with Thomson, the firm’s respon-
siveness, quality of service, timeliness and reliability.
Those of our respondents blessed with a capacity
for brevity – or were they just short of time? –
provided a selection of one-word answers for their
choice of Thomson as their favorite service provider.
Examples include: accuracy, delivers, discount, legacy,
outstanding, quality, reliable, responsive. Others were
(relatively) expansive but even then there were no
wasted words: ‘I use it daily. Outstanding,’ one said.
From another: ‘Provides industry-leading financial
content and advanced analytical tools.’
Runners-up
Chasing hard on the heels of Thomson, both in North
America and globally, comes Ipreo. Ipreo’s fans are
predominantly in the US and Canada, with just nine
voters beyond North America: five from Europe and
four from Asia. Most of these clients describe the
Ipreo services they use as encompassing targeting,
surveillance and shareholder identification; and they
are particularly enthusiastic about the individuals
they work with at Ipreo.
‘Good analysts,’ said one. ‘Insightful, happy to
help the team with things that may not be formally in
scope – [Ipreo] feels like a real partner to IR.’ Another
said: ‘We have a solid long-term relationship with
Ipreo. It has proven time and time again its ability to
step up and deliver what it says it will.’
Orient Capital, third-placed in the global
popularity stakes, is also second in Asia and third in
Europe. The firm isn’t active in the US, unlike its top
three peers, which makes its ranking particularly
impressive. And the firm certainly has enthusiastic
supporters, who call its service ‘fantastic’ and describe
it as ‘exceptionally professional’.
Services offered by first-preference service providers
Shareholder ID, targeting
& surveillance
Website & webcasting
Financial PR, press release
distribution & newswires
IR consultancy services &
support
Annual reports
Conference calls
Proxy solicitation
Other services
49%
27%
21%16%
15%
13%
10%
46%
Services rendered
favorite service providers: US & Canada
Provider Points
1 Thomson Reuters 193
2 Ipreo 119
3 Shareholder.com 46
4 NASDAQ 33
5 Computershare 28
=6 Marketwire 21
=6 SNL Financial 21

4. 32 www.InsideInvestorRelations.com | March 2013 IR MAGAZINE
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Like the other global top three service providers,
Orient Capital specializes in shareholder analysis,
tracking, targeting and related fields. To some extent,
this helps all three firms in these rankings since,
according to the findings recorded in the IR Magazine
Global Practice Report 2012, this is the area of activity
corporate investor relations departments most
commonly choose to outsource. Indeed, 64 percent
of IR departments that have primary responsibility
for targeting and shareholder ID at their companies
say they commission external service providers for
this aspect of investor relations.
Together but apart
In fourth place comes Shareholder.com, wholly
owned by NASDAQ OMX. And of course NASDAQ
is currently in the process of finalizing its most recent
acquisition: the IR, PR and webcasting businesses it’s
buying from Thomson Reuters. That presents the
prospect in the near future of a single group truly
dominating the investor relations service space –
even more so than now.
But the fact that similar numbers of IROs voted for
Shareholder.com and for NASDAQ suggests clients
favorite service providers: Asia
Provider Points
1 Thomson Reuters 50
2 Orient Capital 27
3 ShareInvestor 24
=4 Hill & Knowlton 21
=4 MZ 21
don’t necessarily regard recently merged entities as
single businesses; in many cases, loyalty to the brands
and the individuals providing the services persists long
after a deal has closed and the rebranding is complete.
Examples of this attitude include the separate
listings of Computershare and Georgeson in the
rankings, despite those two firms now being one
entity called Computershare Georgeson. Brunswick
and Merchant Cantos appear separately, too, as do
King Worldwide and Capital Precision. We’ve
chosen to accept the names as proffered by IROs,
because we assume this is evidence that these are
the businesses to which they remain loyal.
The tables on these pages are straight tallies of
Favorite providers by respondent cap size
Small/mid-cap Large/mega-cap
1 Thomson Reuters 1 Thomson Reuters
2 Ipreo 2 Ipreo
3 NASDAQ 3 Orient Capital
4 Shareholder.com 4 Bloomberg
5 Orient Capital =5 Georgeson
=5 King Worldwide
favorite service providers: Europe
Provider Points
1 Thomson Reuters 54
2 King Worldwide 35
=3 Equity Story 27
=3 Makinson Cowell 27
5 Orient Capital 21
firms being cited as first, second and third favorites by
a random selection of corporate clients around the
world. There’s no weighting for company size and
we’ve paid no attention to service providers’ own
published client lists. Regardless of such fine details,
the tables show some surprising presences and absences
among the IR service providers around the world – of
which doubtless their current, future and former
clients will take note. zy