According to research from the investor relations member body, the UK IR society, the majority (60%) of in-house investor relations officers have smaller budgets to work with than they did a year ago. Despite cutting the funding of their investors relations activities, most companies are also expecting their IR teams to work harder. Of the IR society members polled, 75% of IROs say that they are spending the same or more time with the sell side, 40% are spending more time on debt IR and 50% of IROs report that their CEOs have engaged in more IR.

More encouragingly, three quarters of the members of the UK IR Society feel that the perception of IR among investors has stayed the same or improved.