Finns have become a nation of investors. Will investors find your company?

The number of Finnish investors continues to grow. According to figures published by Statistics Finland in September 2026, 2.14 million people owned shares or investment funds at the end of 2025. That was 94,000 more than the previous year. As many as 38 per cent of the population had investments, whereas in 2013 the figure was around a quarter. Around 950,000 people held direct shareholdings on the stock exchange.

The potential investor base is significant. The growing popularity of investing gives the management of a listed company good reason to ask: are we reaching the people who might be interested in our company as an investment opportunity? As we noted in our previous blog post, reaching investors is not just about visibility, but about the company consistently building an understanding of its business and value creation.

A well-known company may be unknown as an investment opportunity

People may be familiar with the company’s name, products or services. The company may be known as an employer, or interviews with its management may be followed in the media. Yet people may not necessarily know how the company generates profits, where its growth comes from, or what its prospects are based on.

Reaching out to investors starts with a clear equity story. Management must be able to explain how the company intends to create value and why its strategy is likely to succeed. Investors also need an understanding of what they can and should monitor to assess the success of the strategy.

A good equity story provides a strong foundation for capital markets communications. Alongside this, a plan is needed for how the company will reach potential investors, generate interest and help investors familiarise themselves with the company’s business.

Individual releases do not build long-term understanding

New client relationships, products and investments provide natural topics for investor communications. It is also essential for investors to understand, for example, the broader significance of a news item. A new client contract may spark interest, but its value remains unclear if the news report merely states that the contract has been signed. Investors will wonder: does the agreement open up a new market? What does it indicate about demand for the product? Could the partnership lead to ongoing business?

When a company explains how a new client or investment supports its strategy, investors are better able to assess its significance for future success. However, a single success story only provides part of the picture. That is why it is important to revisit the same topics and report on how progress is being made. In this way, investors can monitor whether the company’s objectives are being backed up by concrete evidence over time.

Interest has been piqued, but what makes an investor return

An investor may monitor a company for a long time before making an investment decision. They form an impression of the management, assess the credibility of the strategy and observe whether the company is moving in the direction it has outlined. It is therefore worth considering how investors can regularly update their understanding of the business and assess the realisation of previously communicated opportunities.

Earnings releases are a key part of capital markets communication. However, there should be plenty happening in between them. Business operations can be explained through customer case studies, interviews with management and content that addresses investors’ questions. These topics should help to shed light on matters that are essential to the company’s future.

Consistency in capital markets communications does not require a constant stream of news. It requires a systematic approach: deciding what aspects of the business to disclose between earnings releases, how to report on the progress of the strategy, and how to ensure that the content reaches investors.

Goal-oriented planning helps you choose the relevant measures. For a small company, a few carefully executed pieces of content and engagement opportunities may be sufficient. A larger company can take investors on a video tour of a factory, into a customer’s day-to-day life or behind the scenes of product development, and demonstrate where future growth might come from. The discussion on these same topics can be continued in management’s LinkedIn posts and at investor meetings.

Investor communications are part of management’s agenda

Comprehensive capital markets communication begins with a shared understanding between management and the Board of Directors of how the company intends to create value and what is required for success. It is management’s responsibility to ensure that investors can understand the strategy and monitor its progress.

From time to time, the management team should view its own company through the eyes of an investor encountering it for the first time: why would they be interested in us, are they able to assess our opportunities and risks, and what can we reveal or communicate that would give them a reason to continue following us?

Ultimately, it is all about the investor’s entire journey: how the company is discovered, how the investor comes to understand its business, and why their interest is sustained even after the initial encounter. When different channels and interactions all support the same investment narrative, capital markets communications form a coherent whole rather than a series of isolated communication initiatives.