Meet our expert – Anders Redigh Karlsen
In this month’s edition of Meet our experts, Anders Redigh Karlsen, VP Investor Relations and Global Market Insight (IR & GMI) explains how he and his team play a key role in communicating with shareholders, ensuring the investor community stays informed, confident and connected to Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s long-term vision.
Anders started working for Wallenius Wilhelmsen in the summer of 2023 but knew the company well from the outside after many years’ experience as an equity analyst. His role in IR and Market Insight is to keep the investor market updated and informed about company activities and financial results.
"We try to make our investors understand what drives our earnings and what we do to make the company an attractive place to invest. Furthermore, we work to identify market trends and how they affect us as a company," says Anders Redigh Karlsen, VP Investor Relations and Global Market Insight.
Over the past couple of years, the shareholder base has more than doubled, according to Anders. This suggests that there has been an inflow of both institutional and private shareholders in the shares that are not held by the two main shareholders.
The difference between institutional and private investors is that institutional refers to more organized funds, such as pension funds and hedge funds, while private investors are individuals holding shares in the company. Currently, there are over 13,000 different shareholders invested in the company.
Keeping up with the company
The main contact points with the investors are the quarterly presentations, where the company’s financial results from the past quarter are presented. The presentation takes place at our headquarters at Lysaker, but it is also possible to join via webcast.
"Following the presentation, we often participate in group meetings hosted by companies that do regular analysis on us. The people we meet are typically institutional investors and large private investors. We also participate in events hosted by various brokerage houses," he says.
Furthermore, Anders says that analysts, such as DNB Carnegie, ABG and Pareto, also play an important role, as they in many ways are an extended arm in communicating with investors.
"In addition to writing thorough reports on the company, the analysts reach a bigger part of our target audience than we manage in a day. Therefore, they are an effective bridge to our current and potential investors as they regularly distribute news on how the company is doing," Anders explains
Navigating rough waters
When communicating with shareholders, Anders explains that there is a fine line between not sharing information that can be taken advantage of, while at the same time sharing enough information that investors and analysts understand the value of our activities. In uncertain times, however, one outweighs the other.
When times are challenging, transparency becomes even more important as shareholders need to trust us to give truthful information. In the end, honesty and integrity are important when dealing with our internal and external stakeholders.VP Investor Relations and Global Market Insight
Last week, Anders presented the results from the third quarter alongside Lasse Kristoffersen, CEO and Bjørnar Bukholm, CFO. Despite market turmoil linked to tariffs and global trade, the third quarter’s results proved to be robust, both financially and activity-wise.
"I would say the short story is that we are doing very well despite all the challenges we have coming our way. It’s really a sentiment of an organization that is capable and willing to adapt to changing circumstances," says Anders
Get the full picture: dive into our Q3 results on our Investor Relations page