Investor Relations

Who are Investor Relations professionals?

Investor Relations professionals are appointed by senior management to communicate on behalf of their company with the economic and financial community, largely consisting of financial analysts, fund managers, institutional and bond investors, private shareholders and regulators.

What do they do?

Investor Relations professionals develop and implement the company’s financial communications policy in a way that respects the principles of equal and uniform handling of information. They are tasked with creating a relationship of trust with the market by acting as a reliable source of pertinent information that helps both investors and managers make decisions. They play a central role in achieving the company’s goals with respect to financial communications by:

• ensuring that, through their contacts outside the company, the market optimally values the company over the long term by explaining its strategy, business model and operating environment;
• adding value internally through the highlighting of market information that it is useful to management;
• ensuring the understanding of the investor relations role internally, notably regarding the management of financially sensitive information;
• ensuring consistency accross all forms of corporate communications.

What skills do they need?

In view of the globalization and growing complexity of the financial markets, the diversified profile of financial market participants, the demands of market authorities and the increasingly rapid speed of information, the Investor Relations profession has become a versatile and multidisciplinary one, requiring ever more skill and professionalism; a mastery of financial markets and corporate financial management concepts combined with legal, CSR and governance knowledge, as well as genuine communication and persuasion skills.