Utah recently became the 25th state to recognize the OTCQX Best Market under its “Blue Sky Manual Exemption” for secondary trading. Just one year after Vermont first recognized OTCQX, reaching half of the 50 states marks a pivotal milestone in our quest to achieve national Blue Sky recognition. The addition of Utah followed recent recognitions from Delaware, West Virginia, Indiana and Maine. Continue reading “Set out on a journey and make your mark… OTCQX Blue Sky Recognition Expands to 25 States”
As part of this year’s NIRI conference, OTC Markets Group worked with the team to organize and moderate a panel of industry experts dedicated to addressing the needs of small cap IR professionals. Continue reading “5 Takeaways from our Small-Cap IR Summit”
For unique insight into the small cap companies trading on our markets, we recently engaged their C-suite to shed light upon some of the challenges they face when trying to drive and increase investor interest in their stock. Between March and May of 2017, OTC Markets Group Inc. conducted a survey of 117 CEOs and CFOs at the helm of the U.S. and international companies that trade on our OTCQX and OTCQB markets. The results of the inaugural Small-Cap Survey revealed that small-cap companies, traditionally defined as having a market capitalization of under $2 billion, are continuing to miss key opportunities to attract new investors and raise capital. Continue reading “Challenges Faced by Small-Caps: The Results are in…”
There is growing interest in the area of Corporate Governance and how companies can leverage best practices to attract investors and lower the cost of raising capital. To provide companies with the “rules of the road” we recently hosted a webinar with Compass Investor Relations. Continue reading “Corporate Governance Rules of the Road”
The high cost to complete an IPO onto a U.S. stock exchange – on average $2.5 million*, combined with the declining bank appetite for small-cap IPOs, is forcing many small companies to stay private longer. However, the public markets offer tremendous benefits for small-cap companies seeking to raise capital and grow their businesses. Fortunately, an IPO isn’t the only method for small companies to gain the benefits of a public market.
In our second whitepaper with IR Magazine, on Small-Cap company issues, we focus on three alternatives to the traditional IPO: Continue reading “Think an IPO is the only way to access the Public Markets?”
With more than 6,000 small and micro-cap companies trading on our markets, we are uniquely positioned to understand the issues they face, and help them effectively navigate the public markets. That’s why we’ve partnered with IR Magazine to develop a Small Cap IR whitepaper series that addresses the unique challenges in navigating the public markets, including high fees and changing market structure.
A successful public market experience starts with developing a well thought out IR strategy.
The most successful small-cap companies are those that employ certain public company best practices. For some issuers, this will require a fundamental examination of the business, its principals, goals and objectives, for others it will require getting the company’s financial house in order.
Continue reading “3 Best Practices to build an effective IR Strategy”
“The OTCQX Banks Index, a benchmark for community banks traded on the OTCQX market, gained 30 percent in the past 12 months, compared to 15 percent for the S&P 500. How can community banks leverage this positive trend and deliver greater value to their shareholders? Continue reading “Leveraging the high demand of Community Bank stocks”
There is an adage that stocks need to be sold by having their stories widely told. This is especially important for smaller companies looking to promote themselves to customers and build their visibility with the investment community.
Social networks and online media sites have created new ways for public companies to interact and connect with potential investors. Digital marketing has made it easier for investor relations professionals to reach millions of investors with the click of a mouse, but it can also be abused by anonymous market manipulators for fraudulent promotional campaigns. Continue reading “Stock Promotion – Context, Concerns & Potential Solutions”
In a previous blog post, I talked about some of the “pains” associated with a being an exchange-listed company today. Not only does it cost $2.5 million to do an IPO onto a U.S. exchange, it costs on average $1.5 million per year in legal, accounting, advisory and compliance costs to maintain an exchange listing, according to a 2011 study by the IPO Task Force. And that doesn’t include the value of management’s time and internal resources that are diverted to meet increasingly complex exchange rules and processes – and away from growing the business.
At OTC Markets Group, our goal is to remove the obstacles associated with being a publicly-traded company by reducing costs and complexities for business and investors. In this post, I outline the three ways we’re helping to take the pain out of being public:
- our data-driven market standards
- technology-driven information distribution
- broker-dealer-based trading model
Continue reading “How Can We Take the Pain Out of Being Public? Part II”
Cromwell Coulson
Dan Zinn
Jason Paltrowitz
Guest Contributor
Matt Fuchs