With the COVID-19 pandemic creating physical distance between investors and fund managers, frequent communication with a private equity platform is even more paramount.
Firms historically struggle to create a consistent and clear flow of information with their LPs, causing Investor Relations teams to feel stuck in a reactive state with limited tools to improve communication and visibility.
PEI asked 120 Fund Managers about their communications with investors and 61% stated LPs request more frequent reporting about portfolio company revenues in light of COVID-19.
In this guide, we’re sharing how funds can keep in step with frequent reporting requests.
For IR teams to drive key relationships and continue everyday engagements they need to:
Automate common workflows
A maxim of productivity is to automate anything that is done more than twice. In IR departments several activities fall within this category and can be automated with a private equity platform.
PPMs
A well-crafted PPM is an asset to investor relationship management. A PPM with modern design and thorough information can bolster confidence. Automate the process of creating your private placement memorandums so your investors see your consistency, attention to detail, and reliability.
Cap Calls
Capital calls must be executed flawlessly to ensure the growth of your fund. Create a cap call template that includes your key information like the percentage of unfunded capital called for, due date, list of total commitments, name of the fund, and payment details. Once this template is in place, it should be added to your private equity platform so you can automatically deploy it when your firm finds its next promising deal.
Distribution Notices
Managing distribution notices with an email service can become an administrative nightmare. Automating the distribution notices saves hours and ensures the communication schedule is reliable which cultivates LP trust.
Review communication coverage of investors and stakeholders with your private equity platform
Use interaction data provided by your communication platform to create a proactive plan for engagement. Develop a habit of reviewing tearsheets that summarize interactions with LPs.
Measure engagement to inform follow up activities, and talking points
From your interaction reports and tearsheet review, you will see details of each interaction. Those details should be used to schedule further, meaningful connections with investors.
Perhaps you need to schedule a brief touch base to inform an LP on the progress of a recent cap call. Perhaps you see a group of LPs is waiting on a report. Develop a practice of reviewing your LP interactions weekly and creating your task list from that.
Provide self-serve analytics in a secure portal
Self-serve analytics is the norm for today’s tech-literate consumers. Provide investors access to as much data as possible while still maintaining a high level of communication.
Most LPs appreciate the ability to dig into data and review it for their own purposes. Your private equity platform should have several options to display and deliver self-serve reports for investors.
Proactive outreach earns trust
The state of investor communications has been indelibly changed. Proactive outreach to LPs is a new requirement.
Use automation to optimize administrative tasks, follow-up based on previous interactions, accountability across the team, and share rich reports with LPs through a secure portal.
Through technology, communication can be automated without sacrificing the investor experience. Reduce time spent on one-off requests and take advantage of your data, interactions, and industry knowledge to build stronger investor relationships.
