More than 40% of the public companies headquartered in Ohio say they will change the way they communicate with investors because of the Securities and Exchange Commission's new
Regulation Fair Disclosure, set to go into effect next month (PRN, Aug. 28 and Sept. 11). The vast majority of companies making changes in their IR communications (75%)
said "they'd be more open in their communications," according to Jim King, VP of IR at Edward Howard & Co., the firm that conducted the survey. (The new rule basically
requires that companies release "material information" that might affect their stock performance to the general public at the same time they provide it to institutional investors
and analysts.)
If the survey were taken today, King says he believes the number of companies planning to make changes would be much higher. "Based on the conversations we've had, the survey
results underestimate" corporate response, King says.
The survey, conducted during the two weeks after the SEC approved FD on Aug. 10, turned up one surprise - 13% of the companies had not heard of the new rule. King says he
attributes that ignorance to IR professionals wearing many hats (treasurer, comptroller, finance), so having competing demands on their time. He also believes its approval during
the height of summer vacation season may have affected the result.
(King, 216/781-2400)