Situation
Founded in 1986 as a publisher of a directory of fax machine phone numbers
for businesses operating in Denmark, Copenhagen-based Telepartner
A/S had an interesting, though not inspiring, business history.
With the deregulation of the telecommunications industry in Denmark
and in other Scandinavian countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
Telepartner expanded its offerings into other telecommunications and
communications services, as well as into neighboring Norway and Sweden.
Challenges
By the time Politis Communications met Telepartner’s top executives
in early 1999, the company had completed a small
but successful public offering on NASDAQ, with its American Depositary Shares trading under
the symbols of TPARY and TPARW. Unfortunately, Telepartner’s visibility
in both the financial marketplace and in the media was virtually nil,
with shares trading near an all-time low (between $2.25 and $2.50 per
share) and with volume averaging less than 30,000 shares traded per day.
After carefully reviewing Telepartner’s business model and service
offerings, Politis Communications recommended Telepartner reposition
itself around its expanding capabilities in the Internet space as an
Internet Solutions Integrator instead of as a telecommunications company.
This strategy was recommended for two main reasons.
1. Telepartner had begun providing a variety of Internet-related services,
including domain name registration, Web site design and hosting, Internet
access and e-commerce services, in addition to its traditional telecommunications
products; and
2. The marketplace was affording higher valuations to Internet-based
firms than it was to telecommunications companies.
Solutions:
A Timeline of Success
March 1999
The agency created and distributed new public relations and investor materials
that repositioned Euro909 as an Internet Solutions Integrator.
Politis Communications also identified and began cultivating relationships
with
appropriate trade and financial media that would be interested in the new
Telepartner Story.
May 1999
Politis Communications helped rename the company away from its telecommunications-centric
name to a name (and stock symbol) more indicative of its Internet and European
focus: euro909.com (Nasdaq: ENON). Interest in the now renamed euro909.com
developed almost immediately, and the company saw incremental increases in
both the number of shares traded each day and in its share price.
October
Newly named euro909’s share price and volume had doubled, when Politis
Communications landed its first independent recommendation for the stock with
a target price of $12.00 per share. Other editors and stock analysts also began
to recognize euro909.com as an undervalued company, and the company’s
share price and daily trading volume rocketed in the fourth quarter of 1999
and early 2000.
Mid-January 2000
euro909.com’s stock price broke through the $30
price barrier and the
number of shares traded in a single day twice exceeded five million shares.
During 2000, euro909.com became a National Market company listed on
NASDAQ and it successfully completed a warrant
call that generated net proceeds of $8.5 million. As of the end of 2000, the company had operations
in six western European countries with plans to continue to expand throughout
Europe.
Results Summary
Positioned the company in the Internet services
arena, rebranded the company as euro909.com, and changed the stock symbol
to ENON.
Generated the company's first ever financial analyst coverage, with initial
target stock prices of $15.00 and $35.00 per share, respectively.
Supported stock price rise to more than $3.00 per share in less than
10 months,
a successful warrant call that netted $8.5 million,
and movement to the NASDAQ National Market from Small Caps.
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