It has long been a bugbear of mine that some PR companies stretch significant announcements of their clients over three days to try to get some media coverage. But another issue that yanks our collective chain is their use of the SGX Significant Announcements website as their corporate press release dissemination channel. Creative Technology stands out as one of the main 'offenders'.

Today's announcement is a case in point. If the announcement title 'Creative Introduces the Vado Pocket Video Cam - Capture Life - See it, Shoot it, Share it - All in an Instant' doesn't already give it away, the absence of any forecast on the impact on earnings - not even the obligatory but completely useless "this announcement is not likely to impact earnings this year" - is sure to make you see this press release for what it is.

We don't have anything personal against Creative's Corporate Communications Manager Jenny Wong, nor Yap Meng Lee from August Consulting, whose names grace the documents. In a way, I sympathise with Creative because of the tough ride they've been through. Wong and agency haven't exactly had a lot of good news to announce over the last year or five. But the SGX significant announcements page just isn't the place if the announcement is not significant.

Plus it's not like these postings have their desired effect. A scan over the last three months worth of announcements show that out of the nine announcements in that time, four were product press releases (the others were meaningful announcements about the sale and leaseback of their building, financial results and a tie-up with InnoMedia). A check on Google shows none of these four were picked up by the press.

This is where the Investor Relations Professionals Association (Singapore) – set up with the blessing of the SGX – can have an influence. If it wants to do something really useful, it would ask the SGX to split the current corporate announcements page into two: one for the really meaningful stuff which serious investors need to make investment decisions, and another for all the rest. This would include glossy PowerPoint presentations, press releases and so on, which are not permitted to say anything more than the statutory announcement anyway (and usually say a whole lot less). I suspect the IRPAS would not agitate for such a change, given that the Association's Board of Directors is made up entirely of investor relations people (or in any event corporate types who stand to benefit from putting a message out there), not the audience of investors and analysts who are at the receiving end of their output.

For the sake of clarity and an informed (not clouded) market, let's get rid of the PR stuff and cut to the real game on the SGX announcements page.


Mark Laudi

Labels: Creative Technology, Investor Relations Professionals Association (Singapore), IRPAS, Singapore Exchange