Selling the Quoted Companies Alliance

Peter Curtain, Gorkana PR

10th February 2012

The Quoted Companies Alliance is an organisation of major importance due to the authentically constructive role it performs in both the City and the wider community.

Small and mid-size quoted companies are vital to the UK economy. Numbering almost 2,000, they represent 85% of all quoted companies. They employ and train around one million people and contribute significantly to Government revenues through tax.

The Quoted Companies Alliance exists to protect and advance the interests of this vital sector by influencing policymakers, market operators, lawmakers and its own community – companies, advisers and fund managers. As the only organisation with these communities specifically in mind, it is focused on growing membership while increasing its effectiveness and moving further ‘upstream’, becoming more involved in the coordination of policies.

As the independent membership organisation for small and mid-size quoted companies, the Quoted Companies Alliance should be in trouble – IPOs in the sector have all but dried up following the world financial crisis and many companies have left the market, some through insolvency.

Added to this, group has long faced a conundrum – when it wins a victory, such as raising the fundraising threshold at which companies much produce a prospectus, all companies in the sector benefit, not only members. Yet member numbers are growing.

The Quoted Companies Alliance has faced its challenges head-on by closely defining its role, understanding the needs of its constituents and enhancing the benefits of being involved. Companies and advisers no longer see the Quoted Companies Alliance membership as optional but as a ‘must-have’, whatever the market conditions.  

The result? Membership stands at 250, with companies from a wide range of industry sectors and an average market value of £34 million (if two large FTSE 250 companies are excluded).

The group has built strong relationships with journalists, particularly those reporting the sector, to develop a conversation that delivers a more long-lasting impact and more ‘whole thinking’ about the community.

The Quoted Companies Alliance began when a group of City professionals – the market maker Brian Winterflood, Andrew Beeson, the corporate broker, and others – met to mourn the old Unlisted Securities Market and explore ways of capturing the recognition it brought smaller companies. Two things ensued – the advent of the AIM market and the birth of the City Group for Smaller Companies, soon renamed the Quoted Companies Alliance.

Advances were made under the leadership of John Pierce who retired in 2009. Since taking over as CEO in July 2009, Tim Ward, a former Finance Director of FTSE International who held senior roles at the London Stock Exchange, has focused on three priorities: Campaign, Educate, and Provide networks.

Under his leadership, the Quoted Companies Alliance has won recognition for the sector’s unparalleled role in creating wealth and employment from both policymakers and politicians in Europe and UK, and campaigns to ensure the regulatory burden does not fall too hard on the sector.

The campaigning role has brought major successes in the last year, such as extending the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trusts so more quoted companies benefit and bringing in European law changes to the UK early so that companies raise money on a market more effectively  without having to produce a lengthy document. Bridges built by Tim with EU figures and British ministers and civil servants ensure the effects of regulation are considered and if necessary changed before they’re imposed.

Trips to Brussels mean that now, rules or guidance from Europe is much more likely to consider the small to midcap community. Initiatives as part of the EuropeanIssuers umbrella grouping, on whose executive committee Tim sits, makes for a stronger, pan-European approach.

Yet there’s no room for complacency – protecting firms from ill-considered regulation is always a work in progress and a major role for the Quoted Companies Alliance is opening and maintaining lines of communication at senior levels in Westminster, Whitehall and among regulators and market operators.

Briefings and consultations – some 60 produced last year alone – must be thoroughly researched, accurate and persuasive. They show the hard work undertaken by the Quoted Companies Alliance team, backed up by senior specialist advisers who give freely of their time and expertise.

And there’s no shortage of causes. The group is pushing for a bond market for mid-sized quoted companies, designating small and midcaps as a distinct class for the purposes of European legislation so each country can benefit of that community, the reform of capital gains tax relief, the inclusion of AIM and PLUS-quoted firms in ISAs, and for European legislation to be applied proportionately in respect of the sector.

Evidence and findings from the QCA/BDO Small and Mid-Cap Sentiment Index, a quarterly YouGovStone survey launched last year to track the confidence of the small and mid-cap quoted sector, will add big ammunition to the group’s campaigning activities.

The Quoted Companies Alliance’s advisory groups and technical committees, drawing on top City talent and experience, get members’ voices heard in Government and among professional bodies.

In education, the Quoted Companies Alliance Corporate Governance Guidelines for Smaller Quoted Companies is now recognised as the standard for small to midcaps. Its growing range of handbooks are prized among PLC boards and advisers alike for their clear, simple, guidance on such subjects as employee share schemes, audit, investor relations and undertaking an IPO.  They are a lively and reliable information source aimed specifically at this vital sector.

These aside, a key reason why companies are signing up is the group’s transformation into a key networking centre at events in London and other major cities. Chairmen, chief executives and finance directors relish the opportunity to share experiences at ‘Come Whine with Me’ briefings. Fund manager lunches are hugely valuable as they provide those who run businesses the chance to engage directly with the institutions that hold the vital purse strings.

Getting the Quoted Companies Alliance’s message across is a constant process and the group is currently refining its branding to take account of recent progress and its developing role. Communicating through the media means ensuring journalists, often more used to reporting company news, understand the Quoted Companies Alliance’s distinctive role and its corporate members’ importance to the economy.

Meanwhile the moving economic landscape continue to expose challenges and opportunities – the Quoted Companies Alliance is now campaigning for a mega-market for larger companies to limit ‘one size fits’ regulation of all companies, however large or small. A new asset class for smaller listed companies, with real political, market and economic backing, would ease the regulatory burden for bring recognition and encouragement for growth businesses.

The Quoted Companies Alliance believes the UK financial services sector generally could do more to attract small to midcap companies, and investment in them, by getting on the front foot rather than being defensive. A first step would be for the City to say: ‘We’re open for business’.

*Peter Curtain is head of Allerton Communications, PR adviser to the Quoted Companies Alliance. This article first appeared at www.gorkanapr.com

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