Communicating with investors isn't always easy. But, these days publicly
traded real estate companies are finding that task a little less difficult by
reaching out to shareholders via the Internet with online conference
calls.
"I think it's necessary," said Jean Dardzinski, investor relations
director, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, Philadelphia, PA. "It's
just one of those tools I think needs to be continued. Even if you're not
getting immediate results, I think it's only a matter of time when it will be a
necessary tool going forward."
Companies like Broadcast.com,
Streetfusion.com, Streetevents.com, and Investor Broadcast Network provide this service. Located in Philadelphia, PA, IBN has 500,000 registered users.
Founded in 1997 as V-Call to help public companies communicate their investment
story, IBN has grown 5,000 percent in the last year. Companies that use the
service can elect to do an audio conference with or without slides or video
presentations. Additionally, IBN notifies the investment community by issuing
press releases and posting a companies conference call on its web page, www.vcall.com.
"We do that now for over 1,000
clients," said David Bauman, CEO. "We know how many people are listening for
every company we broadcast. On any given day we'll have—across all events—from
50,000 to 75,000 people listening."
This type of service also helps public
companies meet Securities and Exchange Commission regulations as well as cut
cost during conference calls.
"The SEC is promoting that we report uniformly
to all stratas. The Internet levels the playing field," said Dardzinski. "People
can access the same information in a timely fashion. The SEC is looking at the
Internet as having fair and full disclosure in real time. Everybody has the same
information at the same time."
The Internet also provides an economic
alternative to phone-in conference calls. "It's cheaper to provide unlimited
access on the Internet than it is paying for a number of phone lines on a
conference call," said Barbara Hasenstab, vice president of investor relations,
Associated Estates Realty Corp., Richmond Heights, OH. "We have a greater
interest in taking advantage of the technology that's out there and utilize it
to our advantage and to our investors' advantage. The Internet is becoming more
and more of a routine way of doing business, having that option is a greater
flexibility to our investors in terms of how they want to participate on our
conference call."
