Bridging Investor Relation Gaps through Valorem Advisors

Winning through Commitment and Teamwork built upon the Foundation of Humility and Respect

Since the trend of Investor Relations Management companies is evolving in the capital market space, public limited companies are availing services of Valorem Advisors to proactively communicate and create awareness of their business and financial performance within the investor community.With the increasing number of listed companies on major stock exchanges throughout India, competition for investor attention and capital is intense. Companies need to work harder than ever to build awareness and trust with both, investors and brokerage houses. Further, the challenge has been made more complex with the increased sophistication of the capital market community who demand greater access to managements, increased transparency and information, and professional communication standards.

In this changed landscape, managements have to devote increasing time and resources to Investor Relation activities. Valorem Advisors has a strong team with diverse financial backgrounds combining global and local experience, and they are experts at advising their clients how to communicate professionally and build their reputations with the investor community.

Valorem Advisors works with clients to craft their investment case and build support for it in the capital markets. They offer advice on all aspects of financial reporting and communication, from transparency and corporate governance standards, earnings releases, and annual reports to investor relations websites. They also help clients formulate, manage and completely execute their investor relations activities with investors, analysts and financial media, providing these stakeholders with a deeper understanding of their clients' fundamentals, positioning, and future prospects, resulting in wider, better-informed coverage and better support for a fair valuation.

Incepted in 2010, Valorem Advisors has been changing the way Investor Relations is managed in India. No longer are good Investor Relations a practice that only large Cap companies are known for, they get these practices implemented for companies of all sizes and sectors. Valorem Advisors have gained years of experience and expertise in best practices of investor relations, corporate communications, corporate governance and transparency standards. They offer clients a comprehensive, customized, and most importantly an independent and proactive Investor Relations Management Service.

The word 'Valorem' means 'value', the people at the company believe in adding value not only to their client companies but most importantly, to their audience – which is the capital market community. Hence the company's motto is: "You're Partners in Value Creation".

The company's ability to deliver sustainable client value is based on a deep understanding of the client's sectoral knowledge, business model, investment rationales, and corporate managements. These realities are communicated to the shareholders as well as the global network of analysts and investors. Valorem engages in a methodical study to identify a client's key differentiators. The result is an all-encompassing communication strategy that helps clients to carve a niche for themselves. Subsequently, Valorem offers customized solutions that evolve and enhance client perception in a sustainable way.

It is critical to set and then exceed expectations.Collectively, the people at Valorem work alongside with clients continuously to manage expectations on an ongoing basis.They advise public companies on strategic and capital market communications to effectively position them with the financial community during transformative events as well as normal course of business.

In cooperation with the management, they develop comprehensive Investor Relations Programs which greatly improve the public image of the company, by clearly articulating their client's key investment attributes, strategic directions, and financial expectations. At Valorem, they start with understanding the fundamentals and financials of the client company in detail. They develop professional investor communication collaterals like investor presentations and fact sheets which are not only very creative but also very informative. They then proactively and independently meet with the investor community to create a better understanding of the company and answer any of the questions and concerns that they may have with regards to their client companies. They thereby increase the awareness and understanding of the company and rekindle the interest in their client company, which may have been lost due to lack of proactive efforts. This activity has been well appreciated by the investor community at large and has also resulted in their relationship network expanding across all types of brokerage houses, domestic and foreign institutional investors, many portfolio management services and large proprietary funds. Their other value added and differentiated services also include investor relations strategic planning, investor relations analytics, event management like non-deal road shows, analyst meetings, perception management, annual report development, etc.

While speaking to The CEO magazine about the major milestones for the company since inception, Mr. Anuj Sonpal – Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Valorem Advisors said: "My entrepreneurship journey started with one client believing in me. We improved this company's institutional shareholding from 5% to 27% within a year, and increased their research coverage significantly, by simply increasing the visibility of the company and creating a better understanding of their business and industry. Since then we have taken on to manage Investor Relations for over 50 companies. Last year, we became the first Investor Relations Company to conduct an analyst conference where 15 of our client companies participated and over 200 people attended. This year we are having another analyst conference during the last week of March spread over an entire week with each day dedicated to a different sector. Within the first week of sending our invitations, we received over 400registrations and had to close out the registration process early as our entire client companies got registrations to meet on an average 100 institutional investors and brokerage house analysts, and over 10 of our client companies got over 150 registrations. This year Valorem Week Analyst Conference will be the largest attended conference of its kind in India. This is a testament to the reach, quality and hard work of my team at Valorem Advisors."

The CEO Magazine interviews Mr. Anuj Sonpal – Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Valorem Advisors

TCM: Please tell us about the road map and future plans of your organization.

Anuj: It has taken a lot of years and effort to create a sustainable differentiated service offering. Today, I believe most of the brokerage houses and investor community know us and we regularly meet them to improve the understanding of our client companies. The majority of our audience appreciate our efforts. I would like to focus on increasing the research bar of our team and further improve our fundamental, financial and sectoral knowledge. I have noticed that if we do a good job backed by strong fundamental and financial knowledge of our client companies, the investor community appreciates the same and starts referring us to other companies which help us grow.

TCM: How do you learn in your life and what is your biggest dream?

Anuj: I learn by making mistakes. I am quick to take up opportunities when given the chance, and I believe in giving our best to each client or project, but most importantly to enjoy the learning experience of it. My biggest dream would be that one day; Valorem Advisors becomes not only the best and most reputed Investor Relations management company in India but maybe the world!

TCM: What are the most effective marketing initiatives or programs you have used to promote your business?

Anuj: I believe in letting the quality of your work speak for itself. Hard and diligent work does pay off if your intentions are right, it will only be a matter of time till the world recognizes it. My intention from day one has been to add value, not only to our clients but also to our audience, the investor community. Hence, I named our company Valorem Advisors. I believe if we stay true to this philosophy, our customers will come to us rather than us having to chase them. We are already seeing this working to a certain extent as many people from the investor community have referred us to companies that they know.

TCM: Please share brief background about you and the journey towards entrepreneurship including some of the biggest learning moments in your life.

Anuj: I was born and brought up in Mumbai and have been very fortunate to grow up in a family of entrepreneurs and businessmen, from my late grandfather to my father and my brother, have all been very successful entrepreneurs. From a very young age, I used to join my father at work, and he taught me to be self-sufficient. In my 10^th Standard boards, I did very well in the computer science subject and computers became my new hobby. I started my first business at the age of 16 by tutoring children in computer science and at the age of 18 I also assembled by the first computer and sold it to someone my uncle knew while working with my father at the same time. I moved to the USA to complete my college education where I majored in Finance and was lucky to get hired right out of college with the then prestigious Arthur Andersen in their risk consulting division. I worked in New York for 8 more years in various finance roles with other prestigious companies like Ernst & Young, Pepsi Co, and Goldman Sachs. I moved to India in 2008 and joined the equity broking field until I started my entrepreneurship journey with Valorem.

The best part about what I do now in Investor Relations is the constant learning. I proudly tell many people that as an Investor Relations Manager I have the best job in the world because we get paid to learn about our client companies and then tell their stories to the world! We get to meet promoters and senior managements of companies, many of whom have come from very humble beginnings and have created large and some very interesting businesses. We not only get to learn about the different sectors and products or services that they are in but more importantly their journey, learning lessons, business cycles, strategic decisions etc. As their Investor Relations representatives, we must do justice to their life's hard work and tell their stories to the investor community and bring them the visibility that they deserve. There is also a lot of learning from the investor community, from their financial analysis of companies and sectors to understanding what they like and dislike about companies.