Do you remember the pre-internet age? That’s when the need for an information agent began — and remains essential to this day for corporate actions.
There are two types of corporate actions: mandatory and voluntary. Whenever you allow shareholders to make a voluntary decision, like choosing to receive elections material, you need an information agent.
You don’t always need an information agent, such as for mandatory actions, but it is a critical role that is geared toward investors who didn’t get information initially or who have lost documents.
Information agents perform essential functions, including:
- Responding to calls from shareholders for election forms
- Handling secondary notifications for investors who may have missed the original information
- Providing necessary forms to relevant shareholders in order to participate in purchasing shares
What else does an information agent do and why does it matter?
You need an information agent long before your voluntary corporate action is launched.
A good information agent develops and delivers a strategic plan that accurately communicates your upcoming corporate action to shareholders. Truly effective information agent services require a full-service approach — a team that can handle all aspects of communicating your transaction, including inbound and outbound management, web development and hosting, broker search and tombstone placement.
Information agent functions include:
- Debt-related services
- Dutch auctions
- Exchange offers
- Fixed income securities
- Rights offerings
- Tender offers
- Mergers and elections
- Standard and second-step conversions
These complex transactions require an experienced information agent to advise, communicate and execute.
Most importantly, effective information agents work closely with issuers, their investment banks, law firms and the exchange/tender agents to keep everyone apprised of the deal, shares tendered and gauge general sentiment from the street.
Critical tasks of an information agent
- Analyzing shareholder base and tender projections
- Developing and consulting on communication strategy, including review of offering documents and Q&A assistance
- Coordinating with the exchange agent for the fulfillment of new accounts from launch to closing
- Conducting broker search, distributing offering materials to banks, brokers, intermediaries and agents, and commencing mailing with distribution to DTC
- Ongoing client communication in the preferred method and frequency
- Sending out additional relevant information to requesting shareholders
- Sending out documents to brokers and dealers
- Handling shareholder information questions
Have questions?
EQ has answers.