Menu

IR Society 2019 Best Practice Awards entries open today

IR Society leads the way in excellence in Investor Relations

The IR Society, representing the UK Investor Relations Industry, today launches its 19th Best Practice Awards (“Awards”).  These prestigious Awards will be judged by a panel of esteemed investor relations and investment community professionals and recognise companies for best-in-class investor communications.

The Awards comprise both self-entry and voted Awards. IR teams can now submit self-entries for awards rewarding best practice in investor relations in the following five categories:

  • Best overall communication of company investment proposition
  • Best annual report
  • Best communication of ESG
  • Most effective use of digital communications
  • Best IR relating a corporate transaction

Awards in the self-entry category will be presented to FTSE 100, FTSE 250, Small Cap & AIM, and international companies, in recognition of the diverse range of companies looking to the UK for excellence in IR.

This year, following a review by the IR Society’s Best Practice Committee, we are pleased to announce a new self-entry award ‘Best IR relating to a corporate transaction’. For this award we are looking for evidence of effective and successful investor relations activity in connection with a corporate transaction, encouraging companies to not only outline their overall strategy but provide granularity on their actions pre, during and post the transaction.

For the voted Awards, which recognise excellence in individual and team investor relations, the IR Society is delighted to be working in partnership with Extel, an Institutional Investor company, helping the IR Society to address a wider audience and voting universe. We are now accepting nominations for:

  • Best newcomer to IR (individual)
  • Best IRO (individual)
  • Best overall company IR (company)
  • Best Investor Engagement (investor)

The ‘Best Investor Engagement’ award is decided by company IROs and presented to an investor/buy-side firm that the investment community believes is the leader in investor engagement with companies.

David Lloyd-Seed, Chair of the IR Society, commented:

“The IR Society sets the standards for excellence in investor relations.  With MiFID II shifting the landscape and bringing investor relations front and center, it is ever more important for IROs to ensure their company’s investment case is well articulated and easily understood.  In the 19th year of our prestigious awards what better way to be recognised for being the best of the best than to win one of our awards for excellence.  I therefore strongly encourage companies to enter and wish them the very best of luck."

Sallie Pilot, Chair of the Best Practice Committee, said,

“The work of the Best Practice Committee has ensured that award requirements and criteria for 2019 have been updated and refined so that they continue to reflect changes in the dynamic operating and regulatory environment companies and IROs encounter on a day-to-day basis. In addition to our new award ‘Best IR relating to a corporate transaction’, we have further refined our ESG award, now named ‘Best communication of ESG’. We believe that a real opportunity exists for companies to be proactive in setting out their long-term strategies and their view on ESG issues when engaging with the investment community, and we encourage all companies that have not already done so to move in this direction.”

The 19th Annual Best Practice Awards' entries are open to all companies from today, 21 March until 30 June 2019 for both the self-entry Awards and for nominations for the voted Awards. Click here for more information, our best practice criteria and entry forms for the self-entry Awards, as well as nominations forms for the voted Awards.

The Best Practice Committee is chaired by Sallie Pilot, Director, Chief Insight and Engagement Officer, Black Sun, and can be viewed here.

For more information contact:

Gary Davies, CEO, The IR Society
+44 20 7379 1763 or gary.davies@irsociety.org.uk

Laura Hayter, Head of Policy & Communications, The IR Society
+44 20 7379 1763 or laura.hayter@irsociety.org.uk

Notes for editors:

About The Investor Relations Society
The Investor Relations Society (IR Society) is a membership organisation that exists to promote best practice investor relations in the UK and beyond. It is run by IR professionals for IR professionals.

Established in 1980, the IR Society’s mission is to promote best practice in investor relations; to support the professional development of its members; to represent their views to regulatory bodies, the investment community and government; and to act as a forum for issuers and the investment community.

The Society has over 850 members from the UK, Europe and beyond, including representatives from most of the FTSE 100, a large number of FTSE 250 companies and a number of AIM and smaller companies as well as IR advisers and service providers. For more information visit www.irsociety.org.uk or connect with us on Twitter (@IRSocietyUK) or LinkedIn

Published 20 March, 2019