Business Wire Focuses On Need for Proactive Investor Relations in Central European Conference Tour

Business Wire, Nov 3, 2000

Business & International Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 3, 2000

Business Wire, in cooperation with the national stock exchanges and domestic news agencies, promoted the concept of corporate disclosure and investor communications in a series of well attended Central European investor relations conferences.

Several hundred attendees, representing listed companies and leading IR and PR agencies, attended conferences held in Warsaw and Prague. Neil Hershberg, Business Wire's vice president-global media, was the keynote speaker at both events, which attracted substantial local media coverage.

The conferences were co-sponsored by Business Wire's local news agency partners in these emerging markets, and the national stock exchanges.

PAP, the Polish News Agency, and the Warsaw Stock Exchange jointly organized the Oct. 17 half-day conference, which included the local Dow Jones and Bloomberg bureau chiefs, and Piotr Kaminski, the vice president of the Warsaw Exchange, among other prominent speakers.

The event, held on the floor of Warsaw's new exchange, was moderated by Roman Mlodkowski, Poland's leading business broadcast journalist. Segments were televised nationally on Telewizja TVN's leading business news program. News coverage of the conference was also carried on PAP's newswires and in other media outlets.

The Oct. 20 conference in Prague was co-sponsored by the Czech News Agency CTK and the Prague Stock Exchange. The event featured more than a half-dozen leading news editors and corporate executives, including Reuters' Prague bureau chief. Jana Bobosikova, one of the Czech Republic's leading television personalities, moderated the conference.

In addition to the Warsaw and Prague conferences, Hershberg also met with officials of the Budapest Stock Exchange and the executive staff of MTI, the Hungarian national news agency and Business Wire's local distribution partner.

"Our goal was to explain to publicly traded companies in these emerging markets how an effective information management program would enable them to tap the global equities markets," explained Hershberg.

"Many of these companies need to increase their visibility beyond their borders," Hershberg continued. "They need to take advantage of the same communications tools that U.S. companies use to convey their corporate message to appropriate news media and the worldwide financial community. Our objective is for these companies to be more active participants in the global information exchange."

Among the topics covered were the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent regulatory approval of Regulation FD, and the evolution of more stringent disclosure requirements in other European markets.

Business Wire, which has network access to more than two dozen national and international news agencies, is the global leader in news distribution. The Central European series is part of a project to increase the flow of corporate information worldwide.

About Business Wire

Founded in San Francisco in 1961 by its president, Lorry I. Lokey, veteran journalist and public relations executive, Business Wire delivers more news from more sources to more destinations than any other service in the world.

With content from more than 17,000 organizations, including major U.S. corporations, Fortune 1000 and NASDAQ companies, Business Wire remains the fastest-growing and largest independent commercial news wire in the world.

The company electronically disseminates full-text news releases for public and investor relations professionals simultaneously to the news media, the Internet, online services and databases, and the investment community worldwide. Business Wire combines a brick-and-mortar foundation with the vision of an Internet company.

With 26 U.S. bureaus, Business Wire's headquarters is in San Francisco with an international hub in Brussels, Belgium and reciprocal offices throughout the world.