Investor relations budgets declined notably over the last year as companies responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new research from IR Magazine.
The average budget, excluding staff costs, dropped 16 percent to $329,000, finds the IR Magazine Global Investor Relations Practice Report 2020.
The report is based on a global survey of more than 900 IR professionals, with responses collected between the first and third quarters of 2020.
Mega-cap companies have average budgets of $715,000, compared with $193,000 for small caps, according to the research. ‘Budgets have fallen at every cap size, the biggest drop being among mid-cap companies where they have shrunk by almost a quarter since 2019,’ write the authors.
While the Covid-19 outbreak caused many companies to rein in costs, IR budgets have been on a downward trend for some time. Five years ago, the average budget stood at around $500,000, notes the report. Since then it has declined by a third.
Despite the fall in resources, IR team sizes have remained broadly unchanged over the last 12 months. On a global basis, the average team size is 2.8 people, a slight rise from 2.6 in the previous year’s survey.
Turning to compensation, the median annual salary range for IROs is $75,000-$99,999, reports the survey. For heads of IR, the median range is $200,000-$249,999.
Other topics covered by the IR Magazine Global Investor Relations Practice Report 2020 include gender diversity, reporting structures and meeting activity, with results broken down by market cap and region.
Click here to read more about the report.
