Investor relations

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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.

Most public quoted companies now have dedicated IR officers or managers who looks after the company's investor relations activities and deal with buy-side and sell-side investment professionals or other 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.

Due to the potential impact of legal liability claims awarded by courts, and the consequential impact on the company's share price, IR often has a role in crisis management of, for example, product liability issues and industrial disasters.

The professional body for Investor Relations in the U.S. is the National Investor Relations Institute known as NIRI. In the United Kingdom, the recognised industry body is the Investor Relations Society, while in Australia the professional body is the Australian Investor Relations Association.