Embracer Group has ruled that no shareholder may sell a single share until he or she has sat through a full rehearsal of the company's quarterly earnings call, held in person at its Stockholm headquarters. The board approved the measure after a second-quarter report showed sales rising while the stock fell 3.8 per cent, a combination the chief executive described as proof that investors were 'not yet listening properly'.
The rehearsal runs for four hours and follows the transcript word for word, including the pauses. Attendees are issued lanyards and seated in rows by holding size. Anyone who checks a phone is returned to the start of the queue. The company has hired two additional coaches to read the revenue lines aloud, and a sound engineer has been assigned to measure how long each shareholder remains silent after the phrase 'organic growth'.
Trading in the stock has been suspended on Tuesdays and Thursdays to accommodate the sessions. Brokers in Gothenburg report that their support staff have begun taking the rehearsal themselves, and that the finance ministry has asked whether its own bond auctions might be preceded by one.
Asked whether the sessions would restore confidence, a company spokesperson said: "The shares fell because the people holding them had not yet been told what the sales meant. They have now been told four times."