Independent Research Share Discussion Threads

[scrapheap] 01/7/2009 10:57

The Smith Trust appears to have sold the IPR/Goodwill to IIR for a cool £427k ....

Not much other info and not exactly reassuring!

A good chunk of cash was made last year but with the settlement ending, PSQ hardly being given any update in this report and such a large slug of capital being withdrawn through the above, plus loads of new options at 1.25p. I'm not popping any champers...

[scrapheap] 01/7/2009 10:40

RESULTS ARE UP ON THE WEBSITE - TAKING A STRONG TEA AND NOW OFF TO READ THEM...

[rob67] 30/6/2009 23:57

Hope the results have some mention of PSQ as i am now officially worried about the lack of take up. Or are they just not up dating the website?
48 grand is that all fatso? Double it 4 me!

[fatso] 27/6/2009 07:11

I am the one who has been averaging down furiously
when IIR appeared to be in a death spiral.
Managed to reduce my loss to some 18p a share. Still,
overall eye watering 48 grand or so down the drain. I reckon, the divi
of 0.5p a share might keep us all quiescent until such time,
the Co might be prepared to climb aboard AIM again. As it happens,
their decision to cut and run, has to be applauded, with hindsight.

[scrapheap] 26/6/2009 16:38

thanks for the news james - its all been rather too quiet up until now!

still hoping I haven't really got to write this baby down to £0 value.

[lord gnome] 26/6/2009 07:42

Have I missed any news about new arrangements for share trading? If not, I'll contact the company and ask them if they have any current plans.

[james 2] 26/6/2009 00:22

Evening all - Results should be posted on website in the next week or so.

[rob67] 03/6/2009 15:25

I see they have added a clever little pull down screen on the research oracle that highlights a New York Times article about the GRAS ending. Actually mentions IIR.

[scrapheap] 03/6/2009 13:41

indeed rob - I'm signed up to the RSS for this and seen v little for ages.

results should be out by the end of this month i would hope, if they stick to the normal timeframes of having been listed.

[rob67] 03/6/2009 13:16

2 months and still no new companies added to PSQ! A little bit worrying. Well it would be if you could still trade the stock. Lets hope it was worth all that extra investment in time and money that was thrown at it. Time we had results and an update me thinks.

[scrapheap] 12/5/2009 17:38

Investors, Research Firms Brace For Settlement's End





By Lynn Cowan and Ed Welsch
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Five years after the largest Wall Street firms agreed to supply independent analyst reports to their clients as part of a massive regulatory settlement, the arrangement is coming to an end - something that could hurt both research shops and individual investors.

The majority of the banks involved in the 2003 case involving allegations of tainted analyst recommendations are scheduled to wind down the settlement's research obligations at the end of July. That means the spigot of mandated money - $460 million total - that financed alternative research reports will dry up.

Although every independent research company that benefited from that funding stream knew the end would come one day, they won't be able to immediately replace the drop in revenue beginning Aug. 1. Public companies that have struggled to attract analyst coverage will also lose out when some brokerage firms drop the extra research. For the individual investors who took advantage of the free reports, independent research will once again revert to its original audience: large institutions such as hedge funds and mutual funds.

There's considerable debate about whether individual investors will directly suffer from the end of the settlement-funded research. Many investment banks maintain it wasn't widely used by customers, and in any case, two of the largest brokerage firms - Citigroup Inc.'s (C) Smith Barney unit and Morgan Stanley (MS) - plan to continue paying for it after the settlement period ends. UBS AG (UBS) is the only bank so far that has said it doesn't plan to do so; others have remained noncommittal.

Of secondary concern to individual investors is whether offering independent research caused the banks' own research reports to become less biased; there was some evidence in the early years that the level of "sell" recommendations by banks rose, said Michael Mayhew, chairman of Integrity Research Associates LLC, which evaluates research services for asset managers.

"During the settlement period, I think the (Wall Street) sell side worked hard to try to make their research more objective. The big question is, without that competition will we start to see a slide back to pre-settlement "sell" levels? I'm not suggesting we will or not; I just don't know," said Mayhew.

The settlement's end coincides with a trend toward less research in general being available to individuals, thanks to unrelated market forces. Many brokerage firms have cut back on their stock analysts in the post-settlement environment because investment banking fees can no longer be used to finance it, and the economic slowdown has prompted further cuts.

"There are easily 1,400 companies in the U.S. markets with no analyst coverage at all. Fifty percent of all companies have two or fewer analysts covering them," said Bruce Aust, executive vice president of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.'s (NDAQ) corporate client group. "We'll see if the number of under-covered companies goes up dramatically after the settlement dollars go away."

For independent research shops themselves, there's no getting around the fact that the settlement money - in some cases in the tens of millions - will disappear for the most part in August.

Morningstar Inc. (MORN) has warned investors that it expects its post-settlement revenue to be "significantly lower" beginning in the second half of the year. Morningstar received $21 million in settlement monies in 2008 - about 4% of its consolidated revenue last year.

But executives at Morningstar and other independent research firms - including heavy-hitters Standard & Poor's and Argus Research - say that they are optimistic that the many of the Wall Street banks will continue to hire them for research after the settlement ends.

At the same time, settlement money has helped firms build up their business and target more clients outside the original banks involved.

"Even though the settlement revenue will go away, we think we're emerging stronger than we were going into" the contracts five years ago, said John Eade, president of Argus Research.

While the traditional "buy, hold, sell" research used by retail investors has been in decline during the settlement period, an alternative research industry has flourished by creating exclusive research for institutional investors with deep pockets. The research spans a wide range of services, from collecting field data and surveys to providing specialized forensic accounting services. Integrity Research estimates the revenue spent on such research services in North America last year reached nearly $2 billion, or nearly half the amount of commissions spent on traditional Wall Street research.

-By Lynn Cowan, Dow Jones Newswires; 301-270-0323; [e-mail]

-By Ed Welsch, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5244; [e-mail]

[hamidahamida] 01/5/2009 09:34

hi j2 nice to see thread is still alive
hope you lot make money out of iir goodluck

[rob67] 01/5/2009 08:08

Doesnt seen like PSQ is being very popular with small firms so far, as no new companies have joined in nearly a month!
Early days but i hope it improves as they have put alot of resources into it.

[martincoops] 19/4/2009 18:33

Cheers James I dont visit much but still hold a small interest. What happened to the brokers note we were supposed to have at the end of the year or is that all forgoten about??

[james 2] 15/4/2009 08:53

Been there a while I think Martin.

Vinh Cam Posted: 11 March 2009 12:37 PM

Summer Student

IIR Group, based in London, is looking for a short term contractor to work with existing developer to complete new research portal. Strong PHP codeigniter and MySQL skills required plus photoshop, Flash and design experience preferred. There is a strong possibility of longer-term work for the next development phase, which is already under planning.


About us:

Independent International Investment Research is the UK's leading source of truly impartial research and strategy for global equities and currencies for broker-dealers, investment banks and asset managers – worldwide.

The company is headquartered in London. The principal research facilities are located in Mumbai, India's financial capital, in order to leverage its high calibre of research professionals and to deliver the most cost-effective research solutions to our clients.

Visit and for more information.

Please send CVs to [e-mail] or call [phone]

[martincoops] 12/4/2009 12:49

I see there is a link on the front page for Indian Mid Caps or has it been there for a while?

Any way it says coming soon!!

[scrapheap] 08/4/2009 08:49

excellent news

[james 2] 07/4/2009 09:58

Initiation report out for Forbidden technologies with IIR covering.

[martincoops] 05/4/2009 15:59

rob67 - 19 Mar'09 - 07:54 - 6373 of 6378


Is it just me or have they always intended to provide research on mid caps outside Aim? Or is this a new development? If so, the no of firms potentially joining the scheme must have increased some what. Can only be good news 4 us.

Rob if you check the latest results it states in there that they are going to cover 50 Indian Mid Caps to be published early 2009

[rob67] 21/3/2009 09:08

Integrity Research has an article on PSQ if anyone is interested

[james 2] 20/3/2009 09:29

Yellow & grey like a pair of saggy old Y fronts LOL.

But yes I agree the content was very impressive.

[scrapheap] 20/3/2009 08:57

I've signed up (fighting the password security) and got an RSS feed for any new reports. Will be keeping scores on the doors for numbers, currently 2/1/1.

I was quite impressed with the content of our report (is that £10k in the bank or did they get a freebie as being guinea pigs...) but at a very deep and significant level, I hate the colours of the website!

[rob67] 19/3/2009 10:34

Martin
look at Mr Smiths comments in the press release on IIRs website. He definately says 'smaller and mid cap' firms so i think it is a new development to our advantage.

[mjcrockett] 19/3/2009 09:16

Rob67, I don't see where they have said 'mid caps'. They have always said they would include small caps listed on the main market. So I don't think things have changed. Unless I have missed something.

MJ