THE ORGANIZATION OF THE INVESTOR RELATIONS FUNCTION BY LARGE UK QUOTED COMPANIES

The results presented here are based on a surrey, in which 61% of the top 500 UK quoted companies participated, on the organizational aspect s of company investor relations activities. The survey established the involvement of the various directors in managing and executing the in vestor relations function. The Chief Executive and Finance Director we re most heavily involved, and the average board of directors spent 37 days a year on investor relations. 52% of respondents had a designated investor relations officer. The most common organizational arrangemen t was for investor relations to be part of the Finance Director's depa rtment. The average salary bill and budget for the investor relations function were pound 107,000 and pound 180,000 respectively. 79% of res pondents used an external investor relations consultant. Only 19% of r esopondents had a formal policy or written description stating the obj ectives and responsibilities of the investor relations function. Mutli variate analysis indicated that the existence of an investor relations officer in the company was associated with size, overseas Listings an d positive opinions on the value of investor relations meetings. Compa nies that had been privatized and those with a high firm specific risk were more likely to have an investor relations officer. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd