The latest IR Magazine Global Investor Relations Practice Report finds that IR budgets and team sizes have continued to fall globally, though spending on external IR remains largely unaffected.
The worldwide average budget companies set aside for IR has shrunk by more than $60,000 since 2011, continuing a downward trend seen over the past two years, the report finds. Meanwhile, the average company’s IR team has shed an entire IRO since 2011, with team numbers being cut across each cap size.
Although firms are spending a larger proportion of their total IR budget on external services, figures are only slightly up on those recorded in 2012 and 2011. When combined with diminishing budgets, however, this means IROs are maintaining a roughly constant level of spending on outside help.
On a regional basis, budgets in North America remain highest, though team sizes are generally smallest. In Asia, meanwhile, companies maintain the largest teams yet are given the smallest budgets.
The document, which is the third edition of the annually published Global Investor Relations Practice Report, also covers topics ranging from meetings and the role of senior management in IR to earnings guidance and attendance at investor conferences. The body of research is based on responses from 1,210 IR practitioners to a series of surveys undertaken around the world by IR Insight, the research arm of IR Magazine.
It also includes a detailed look at IR practices in Europe, North America and Asia, with additional insights into IR in the UK and Canada. A specialized section on IR salaries, meanwhile, reveals how much IR heads earn compared with the rest of their team, and breaks down how salaries differ in different territories and for companies with varying cap sizes.
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