Case Study – Professional Investment Services

Professional Investment Services (PIS) is the largest network of financial advisers in Australia and have large operations in other markets. In 2007 they appointed Macquarie Bank as advisers to take the private company to a public float. De Wintern was brought in as strategic communications and investor relations advisers.

De Wintern determined that the success of the IPO was being affected by two things. Firstly, despite being a part of the investment industry they had very low awareness amongst both in-store and retail investors. Secondly they had a major issue affecting their reputation and increasing the risk profile of the stock when it floated, having been implicated in the collapse of Westpoint, which lead to a class action and charges laid by ASIC.

Media had started to taint all PIS stories with damage from the Westpoint case, which needed to be corrected before those opinions became entrenched.

De Wintern crafted a sophisticated investor relations programme that built profile for PIS and the opportunity their unique business model would offer investors and a buy and sell side analyst relations programme to support Macquarie banks book building process.

Secondly, we constructed an issues management framework for PIS management and built models to help them manage the ongoing Westpoint issue which was settled in 2009. As many staff were personally implicated in the ASIC charges De Wintern also helped support key staff which a supportive internal communications programme and training.

While the IPO was postponed due to the looming financial crisis, the strategies and tools that De Wintern built helped PIS enhance its reputation and protected it during the ongoing ASIC investigations and court case.