Latest news with #IridiumAdvisors
Zawya
19-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
MEIRA partners with Iridium to offer centralised investor events platform
Dubai – Iridium Advisors, the region's leading Investor Relations consultancy, has partnered with the Middle East Investor Relations Association (MEIRA) to give members access to Iridium Events, a centralized platform for tracking investor and capital market activities across the GCC. The platform connects analysts, investors, corporate access teams, and IR professionals, and covers every type of capital market event, from earnings releases and analyst calls to annual general meetings, from capital markets days to investor conferences. Covering debt and equity markets across all six GCC countries, Iridium Events is a unique resource for professional market participants. Launched in December 2024, Iridium Events lists most IR events in the region. It is already in active use by Iridium clients and market participants. The vision is for the platform to become the single-source calendar for the GCC, enabling analysts to plan their coverage more efficiently, and helping IR teams schedule their own events to avoid potential clashes and uncover new opportunities for investor engagement. Under the new partnership, MEIRA's 200+ members will have complimentary and full access to Iridium Events, and listed companies will also be able to add and manage their events on the platform. IR activity in the GCC has witnessed explosive growth in recent years, driven by new listings, greater foreign investment, and evolving regulations. However, as investor engagement increases, tracking and coordinating IR activities has become increasingly complex: Iridium Events lists more than 200 investor events taking place last month alone, highlighting the scale of market engagement across the region. In many ways, this problem is a result of the region's success: There are over 870 listed companies in the GCC, with more than 230 exceeding a market capitalization of USD 1 billion. The number of publicly available earnings calls has grown from fewer than 10 per quarter in 2015 to over 120 per quarter in 2025. Up to five earnings calls can be scheduled to take place simultaneously, forcing analysts and investors to choose between companies. And at the same time, investor conferences and non-deal roadshows have more than doubled. 'Iridium Events gives the market a clear view of regional capital markets activity,' explained Oliver Schutzmann, CEO of Iridium. 'Our collaboration with MEIRA places this tool directly in the hands of the professional IR community. It will help them coordinate more effectively, engage more widely, and enable analysts and investors to navigate the region's increasingly active capital markets landscape.' 'At MEIRA, our mission is to advance best practice and bring tangible value to the IR community,' commented Paolo Casamassima, CEO of MEIRA. 'This partnership with Iridium delivers both. By giving our members access to Iridium Events, we're empowering them with better data, better coordination, and ultimately, stronger investor engagement across the region.' About Iridium Advisors Iridium is a specialized management consulting firm and the GCC's leading advisor on investor relations. We partner with organizations and leaders who believe their market valuation does not fully reflect the fundamentals of their business. These companies typically face challenges aligning corporate performance with market perception, articulating their investment thesis, and operating as mature public companies. Drawing on deep experience from the buy side, sell side, and senior corporate roles, we deliver data-driven advice to build high-performing investor relations programs. By advancing the science and practice of investor relations, we help unlock our clients' true valuation potential. For more information visit About the Middle East Investor Relations Association The Middle East Investor Relations Association (MEIRA) is an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting the Investor Relations (IR) profession and international standards in corporate governance. The mission of MEIRA is to enhance the reputation, efficiency and attractiveness of the Middle East capital markets. This is delivered by fostering increased dialogue among members and encouraging the IR community to share the global benchmark in best practice within the field of IR. In partnership with stock exchanges, regulators and other market participants, MEIRA supports companies through its professional development and certification programmes as well as its membership community and network of country Chapters. For more information visit Media Contacts Iridium Advisors Oliver Schutzmann, CEO oschutzmann@ Middle East Investor Relations Association Paolo Casamassima, CEO paolo@
Zawya
07-02-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Foreign investors adopt a measured approach to GCC equity markets
The GCC equity markets have witnessed a recent slowdown in net foreign investor inflows with January numbers slipping to $939 million from December's $1.04 billion. The drop is even more significant, nearly 41%, compared to November's figures. Findings of the 'Foreign Flow Analysis' study by Iridium Advisors, a Dubai-based management consulting firm, point towards a downward curve, but CEO Oliver Schutzmann called it a sign of foreign investors being 'more selective in their allocations'. 'There are couple of points that have been driving this slowdown recently, but it's not necessarily a sign of weakening interest, because institutional capital is still coming in. It seems that some of the allocations are a bit more selective,' Schutzmann told Zawya. 'Foreign investors could just be reassessing valuations before they commit additional capital, so they are not exiting. They are just monitoring for better entry points.' Beyond 2024 Several key events, including wars in Gaza, and Lebanon and the change in power in Syria, have impacted markets in the GCC, say experts. The UAE, which was the top recipient of inflows in 2024, has seen its momentum slow, indicating a change in investor sentiment, Iridium data revealed. In January, the UAE slipped to third place, attracting inflows of over $115 million, behind Saudi Arabia, which led with $694 million, followed by Kuwait at $133 million. Schutzmann indicated that following last year's rally, which saw Dubai's equity index as the largest gainer in the GCC, surging 27.1% on the back of a strong economic outlook, the UAE's performance in January was not worrisome or indicative of a downward trend. 'If you compare to January 2024 numbers, you will see it's up 19% year-on-year, which is the strongest jump in the region,' he said. According to Schutzmann, the ongoing corporate earnings cycle and valuation dynamics will be key to how the quarter fares for the UAE. On a macro level, he said foreign investor positioning in GCC equities is high right now. 'It's actually at the highest level that it has ever been, and it also suggests that there is continued interest in the region.' He continued: 'According to our data, the global emerging market funds are now at the peak of what they have ever allocated, particularly to Saudi and the UAE. These GEM funds have allocated around 56%, which means that half of these funds don't have any exposure yet to the market and that's obviously because UAE and Saudi Arabia were late comers to the emerging market universe compared to India, Brazil, and China, which already have an allocation of 98% or 99%. 'So, I think this is a clear indication that there is still quite a bit of room for further inflows, but investors may be approaching these new allocations with a little bit more scrutiny, especially in the UAE, where they have had a really good run.' With fluctuating interest rates and a Trump 2.0 US Presidency wielding an influence on capital flows, Schutzmann said that it remains a wait and watch game, with no clear sign that recent changes have pushed investors out of the GCC. 'I think what people need to understand is that foreign institutional investors have quite a long investment horizon. These are not typically people who come in one day and then leave the next. So, while short-term flows could get influenced, this doesn't necessarily mean people will immediately exit the market the moment that you know rates go up or down,' he said. (Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Brinda Darasha)
