With the support of the Department of Trade and Industry's Future and Innovation Unit and with contributions from City financial organisations, a new website has been created which provides guidance on best practice in investor communications on the internet for UK listed companies. The contents of the site - www.irbestpractice.org - are the result of several months of deliberation by a panel comprising representatives of the London Stock Exchange, Investor Relations Society, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, the Quoted Companies Alliance, the National Association of Pension Funds, the IR Group, ProShare and the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers.
The panel will continue to meet quarterly to review the content of the site and to update the criteria in line with current best practice and the changing regulatory and legal framework. The panel will review its own composition on a regular basis and its membership has recently been increased to include a representative of Hemscott.NET.
In addition, in recognition of the impact the Internet is having, and will continue to have, on investor communications in its widest form, the London Stock Exchange and the Investor Relations Society, together with the DTI, will be hosting the Investor Relations Website Awards dinner in London on 28 March 2001. There will be six awards, all recognising achievement in the specific area of investor relations on the Internet.
Don Cruickshank, Chairman of the London Stock Exchange and President of the Investor Relations Society, said: " These are welcome initiatives in a rapidly developing and increasingly important area of investor communication. The Internet provides companies with unparalleled opportunities to reach out to investors. The challenge is to do this in a considered and mature way. The new website should provide companies with a means of benchmarking their investor communications on the Internet easily and effectively on a regular basis."
John Pierce, Chief Executive of QCA, said " The Internet has already revolutionised the availability of corporate information for both institutional and private investors. This excellent initiative from the IR Society and the LSE will hopefully focus SQC's attention on the potential benefits that can accrue from a proactive Internet IR strategy."
Michael Cooling, Chairman of the Panel and Director of Research at the Investor Relations Society, commented: "The website is open to everyone interested in investor relations and we welcome any feedback. Its content is not designed to be prescriptive in any way. Companies, we hope, will find it is a practical, commonsense guide to current best practice and will feel it makes a useful contribution when reviewing the investor relations elements of their websites."
