The greatest decrease reported by respondents Have you seen an increase in direct corporate access requests in developed markets was in equity sales from investors? capabilities (26.2%), while the greatest Yes No Uncertain decrease reported by respondents in emerging l l l markets was the geographic presence of the sell side (26.9%). Larger market-cap companies 15.1% 15.8% 9.5% 12.9% reported a strong negative impact from the 22.7% sell side’s investor client universe (27.9%), 21.4% 12.9% and across the spectrum companies reported 22.4% 25.2% a negative impact or less service in sell-side 20.0% equity sales capabilities (21.1% mega- and large-cap, 23.4% mid-cap, and 24.0% for small- and micro-cap). 74.2% 62.5% 59.0% 69.0% 57.3% Interestingly, feedback on changes to sell-side services was mixed across the board. No response, positive or negative, received a response of 30% or more from any region or capitalization category in this report. GLOBAL ASIA LATIN NORTH WESTERN PACIFIC AMERICA AMERICA EUROPE Metric used to evaluate investor relations program We have continued to see a decrease in IR teams using the number of covering analysts as a metric to evaluate their IR success. This could be a side effect of MiFID II legislation, which has driven the number of research analysts in the industry down overall, affecting in particular smaller or mid-cap companies. This has also been voiced by some industry participants as a driver of perceived deterioration in the quality 2015 2017 2019 5 of some research produced. If the number of analysts covering the 47.6% 43.9% 36.1% company is no longer seen as within the control of the IR team, it is logical to remove this item as a benchmark for IR team performance. NUMBER OF ANALYSTS COVERING THE COMPANY 5 CFA Institute. MiFID II: One Year On. Page iv. Retrieved January 29, 2020 from https://www.cfainstitute.org/-/media/documents/survey/cfa-mifid-II-survey-report.ashx. 31