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Investor Relations Handbook

4 Core Target Group Investors

In a Nutshell

Generally speaking, when we talk about Investor Relations, we mean the communication with professional or institutional investors.

Accounting for 40 percent, value investors make up the most important group on the Swiss stock market. Index funds have experienced strong growth in the last few years and now account for over 20 percent of the SPI. Existing and new investor models are also focusing more closely on ESG criteria, meaning ESG assessments now form part of the basic data.

A core task of Investor Relations consists in finding out from the wide variety of potential investors which ones are a good fit for the company in question. This is known as investor targeting.

Just over 80 percent of investors on the Swiss stock market are domiciled abroad.

It is worth seeking contact with proxy advisors in the context of the continuousl Investor Relations and especially in the case of capital market transactions or delicate annual general meetings.



Last update: September 25th , 2025

4.1 Type and Investment Styles

Generally speaking, when we talk about Investor Relations, we mean communication with professional or institutional investors.

The most important institutional investors include equity funds, index funds, hedge funds, insurance companies and pension funds.

Although they are furnished with relatively few voting rights in comparison with institutional investors, private investors, also known as retail investors, are significant in terms of their numbers. An intermediate form consists of wealthy private individuals, also called high-net-worth individuals (HNWI).

Institutional investors generally pursue one of the following two investment processes:

  • In the bottom-up procedure or stock picking, the focus is placed on the specific selection of the individual security. Sectoral or regional diversification is rarely practiced here or only as a long-term instrument for diversifying risk
  • In the top-down procedure, investors evaluate markets and their prospects and subsequently look for individual securities in the favored industries or regions

There are also differences when it comes to investment style:

  • In the growth approach, the focus is placed on the growth outlook of the company, meaning that sales, profit, or cash flow per share should be growing faster than in other companies in the industry
  • In the value approach, a favorable valuation and the stability of the investment takes center stage. Value investors look for shares that they rate as undervalued by the market, generally in association with a higher dividend yield
  • Both growth and consistency with previous definitions of value are taken into consideration in the blend or core approach
Investors in All SPI Companies by Investment Style

Investors in all SPI companies by investment style, Source:  IHS Markit/IR club Schweiz, Swiss Ownership Trends Q4 2023 (rounded figures)

The above graphic shows the investors on the Swiss stock market based on their investment style. Accounting for 40 percent, value investors make up the most important group on the Swiss stock market in line with the «defensive» profile of the Swiss stock market. Index funds have grown strongly over the last few years and now account for over 20 percent of the SPI. They have become a factor that has to be taken seriously not only for large caps but also for small caps.

4.2 Investor Targeting

For obvious reasons, the greatest importance is attributed to the «right investor base».

Companies estimate that their share would increase by 15 percent and the volatility would fall by 20 percent over the next two to three years if they had the perfect investor base (study by the National Investor Relations Institute and the Rock Center for Corporate Governancei). Consequently, increased engagement with existing investors and the geographic diversification of the investor base are the two most important objectives of the companies listed in Western Europe (IR survey conducted by BNY Mellonii).

A core activity for Investor Relations consists of finding out from the wide variety of potential investors which ones are a good fit for the company in question. Companies can rely on the services offered by banks and specialized consultants for this or they can take matters into their own hands. The following criteria are helpful for this. What is required for investor targeting is access to databases (see ➔ Chapter 4.3) that allow investors to be selected using a variety of criteria, display current portfolio structures, and provide other market data.

Criteria for Investor Targeting

  1. Investment style: «Marry fundamentals with complementary shareholder base»
  2. Peer investors: Understand why a fund owns a share of a peer
  3. Type of investor, for example pension fund versus an ETF equity fund
  4. Sector focus
  5. Size of the investor, minimum investment volume
  6. Size of the company, e.g. small cap equity fund versus a large cap equity fund; be careful when transitioning from small to mid or mid to large cap, as there are different contact partners
  7. Investment horizon
  8. Thematic focus, e.g. ESG or blue chips
  9. Regional/country focus: Look at sales breakdown and, where appropriate, use local presence; take advantage of the expertise of brokers/partners/consultants

Prioritizing the criteria can be effective when selecting investors with the support of databases. The criteria «investment style» and «sectoral focus» are generally at the top of the list here. For example, investors who hold shares in competitors but who have not invested in your company can be identified using peer group comparisons.

A portfolio analysis applying other criteria will reveal which aspects play a role in the decisions taken by an investor. Aspects of your company’s own «equity story» can be accentuated on the basis of this fundamental analysis. Is your annual growth rate higher than that of the competition, for example? Then it will be worth asking the manager of a «growth» fund the question of why they have actually invested in the competition rather than in your company. Finally, it should be remembered that, along with the growth of passive vehicles, more and more investment decisions in the stock market are not made by people but by artificial intelligence.

i

National Investor Relations Institute and the Rock Center for Corporate Governance: 2014 Study on How Investment Horizon and Expectations of Shareholder Base Impact Corporate Decision­Making, Stanford University, 2014 ➔ gsb.stanford.edu/sites/gsb/files/publication-pdf/ cgri-survey-2014-investment-horizon.pdf

ii

BNY Mellon, Global Trends in Investor Relations –Survey 2020. New York, 2020. ➔ www.bnymellon.com/emea/en/insights/ all-insights/global-trends-in-investor-relations.html

11 Contacts and Addresses

Last update: October 21st, 2025

11.3 IR club Schweiz

IR club Schweiz was founded in 1992 under the name Schweizerische Investor Relations Vereinigung (SIRV – Swiss Investor Relations Association) with the aim of acting as an advocate for the concerns of the Investor Relations profession as a voluntary special interest group formed by listed companies. The membership comprises companies listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange, where IR club Schweiz is open to all Investor Relations employees of these member firms.

The IR club Schweiz is an (inter)active forum today. Members share experience, tackle and discuss important IR issues to find transparent solutions. Best practice is the path to the goal, accompanied by good contacts enjoyed by the members with investors, asset managers and analysts in Switzerland and abroad.

More information can be found at ➔ irclub.ch

12 Further Reading

Dedeyan, Daniel: Regulierung der Unternehmenskommunikation. Aktien­ und Kapitalmarktrecht auf kommunikationstheoretischer Grundlage, Schulthess Verlag, Zurich, 2015

Dürr, Michael: Investor Relations – Handbuch für Finanzmarketing und Unternehmenskommunikation, Oldenbourg, München, 1995

Hoffmann, Christian Pieter/Schiereck, Dirk/Zerfass, Ansgar: Handbuch Investor Relations und Finanzkommunikation, Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden, 2022

Janz, Rainer/Löll, Jessica: Finanzmarktkommunikation. Grundlagen einer praktischen Investor Relations, Grin Verlag, Gelsenkirchen, 2015

Müller, Andreas/Oser, David, VegüV – Quo vadis? Umsetzung der Bestimmungen der Verordnung gegen übermässige Vergütungen bei börsenkotierten Aktiengesellschaften im Vorentwurf zur «grossen» Aktienrechtsrevision. GesKR, die Zeitschrift für Gesellschafts­ und Kapitalmarktrecht, Zurich, 2015.

Neubert, Luzius/Zöbeli, Daniel: Stimmrechtsberater. Offprint from Schmitz, Daniela/Döhnert, Karsten/Zöbeli, Daniel (eds.): Die Min-­der­-Initiative bei Pensionskassen – Situationsanalyse und Praxisempfehlungen, Zug and Regensdorf, 2015 ➔Stimmrechtsberater

Porák, Victor/Fieseler, Christian: Investor Relations, Grundlagen der Finanzkommunikation, Haupt Verlag, Bern, 2005

Schöchli, Hansueli: Wie gross der Einfluss von Chefs auf ihre Firma ist, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich, 26 January 2018

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