Additional Advisory

IPO/Pre-IPO Company Services

Is your company planning its Initial Public Offering (IPO), or are you a small cap company? ICS advisors can help your company mitigate risk, determine governance standards and anticipate investor reaction and proxy voting outcomes through governance rating and compensation services. Several services are available to small cap companies and companies involved in IPO or pre-IPO planning.

Custom GRId Scoring

Pre-IPO and IPO companies utilize GRId to audit their corporate governance structure to ensure they meet investors' risk standards for investment. In particular, many companies find it extremely beneficial to leverage the Governance Risk Indicator (GRId) ratings as they prepare for their first and most important shareholders meeting.

In addition, companies not currently covered in GRId can be scored against the GRId methodology to see how they compare to peers in the key areas of Audit, Board, Compensation/Remuneration and Shareholder Rights. Companies seeking a custom GRId score simply fill out a basic form with governance datapoints and then work with their ISS Corporate Services advisor to obtain and understand the custom GRId score.

Benefits of Custom GRId:

• GRId is closely aligned with ISS' benchmark voting policy and can serve as a leading indicator for proxy vote recommendations
• Clients obtain expert input on a range of corporate governance issues that ultimately may impact voting decisions on shareholder resolutions, including director elections and "say on pay" proposals
• Direct advisor contact and support add a personalized touch

Learn more about governance ratings for corporate issuers through our overview of GRId or contact us at sales@isscorporateservices.com to discuss custom scoring for your company.

Pre-IPO Compensation Analysis

ICS advisors work with companies planning an IPO to determine how your planned executive compensation will perform under shareholder scrutiny. ICS can help your company:

• Analyze equity plan dilution based on the expected capital structure of your company post-IPO relative to common institutional investor benchmarks
• Monitor burn rate relative to publicly-traded peers
• Learn about best practices in equity plan design for newly-public companies
• Perform "what if" analyses to understand the impact of various grant or plan design decisions 

Governance Exchange Advisory Desk

Companies of any size from small-cap to mega-cap benefit from comprehensive reporting capabilities when they subscribe to Governance Exchange. With Advisory Desk, corporate advisors can conduct custom analysis to advise on and audit your company's governance structures and practices. ICS can also help your company with management say on pay (MSOP), executive compensation planning and compensation disclosure & analysis (CDA) in your proxy. Sample types of reports include benchmarking to industry or similarly-sized peers.

Governance Publications

Whether your company is pre-IPO, small-cap or outside the universe of companies typically researched and profiled by Institutional Shareholder Services, we offer access to premium thought-leadership and governance research through custom subscriptions to Resource Center.

Track corporate governance and executive compensation trends through a subscription to a publications package including Governance Weekly, Canadian Governance Review, Proxy Season Reports, M&A Edge, SCAS (Securities Class Action Suit) Alert, and more.

Contact support@isscorporateservices.com to learn more.