Investor Relations

Investor Relations

Investor relations is a set of activities which relate to the ways in which a company discloses information required for regulatory compliance and good investment judgment to bond and/or shareholders and the wider financial markets. Investor relations is considered a specialty of public relations by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Most public quoted companies now have dedicated IR officers or managers who looks after the company's investor relations activities and deal with investors wishing to know more about the company. Functions of investor relations personnel often include collection of information on competitors and dissemination of information via press conferences, one-on-one briefings, investor relations sections of company websites, and company annual reports. The investor relations function also often includes the transmission of information relating to intangible values such as the company's policy to corporate governance and its wider corporate social responsibility.

The investor relations function must be aware of current and up-coming issues which the organization may face, and which may have an impact on the organization. In particular, it must be able to assess the likely impact or reaction of any announcements (or any research reports issued by Financial analysts) to be made on the share price of a company. It will have top-level access to the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman or President of the corporation to ensure that the image of the corporation is maintained in a coherent fashion.

Example: www.ibm.com/investor/

Investors are the backbone on the company. The primary objective of the corporate communication department is to build a better relationship with the investors.

In the recent times companies are understanding the investor relations in a better way and are trying to service the investors on a broader arena. The world wide web is helping the companies to service the investors in a better manner and more efficiently. Any information required by an investor or the prospective investor in available in the company websites. For example the Infosys website provides a wide variety of information such as financials, notices to the investors, information about future projects and acquisitions.