Investor relations improve over past year - magazine

Investor relations in Ireland have improved over the last year, according to a majority of analysts and fund managers surveyed on behalf of Investor Relations magazine.

Of the 50 analysts and fund managers interviewed during February, 36 said investor relations had improved, with some attributing the increase in communication to market conditions.

"The bear market has been acute; and no company has entered the Irish market for two and a half years, compared with five a year exiting. For those that remain, good IR [investor relations\] is imperative," said one response.

The report comes ahead of the first annual Investor Relations magazine Ireland Conference and Awards to be held in Dublin next Thursday.

The event, held in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers and The Irish Times, will be the first gathering of its kind for companies listed on the Irish Stock Exchange.

The report found that it is less common to find departments devoted to investor relations within companies than it is in other countries.

Instead, fund managers and analysts talk directly to senior management.

Kerry Group, Irish Life & Permanent and Bank of Ireland all have investor relations offices that are rated highly. But Ryanair, for example, one of the 10 largest companies, does not have an investor relations department.

"It's a tight-knit world," said Mr Neil Stewart, editor of Investor Relations. "People know the CEOs and CFOs by name, they see them often, face-to-face," he said.

Irish companies' investor relations skills compare well to that of other euro zone states and follows best practice in the UK, according to Mr Stewart. Some respondents said that companies had to improve since the introduction of the euro, because they were now competing with companies in the rest of the euro zone for the same investors.

Respondents were sceptical about Irish companies' corporate governance. This view was further enforced by the fraud at AIB's US subsidiary, Allfirst, and the crisis at Elan Pharmaceuticals, which led to a 90 per cent drop in share value. Many felt that AIB came through its crisis well, but they were less confident about Elan's handling.