A few years ago, Preet Banerjee, a retail investor based in Ontario and a personal finance columnist for The Globe and Mail, called the IR department at one of the companies whose stock he held for a routine clarification. The call was never returned. “You’d be surprised how many companies aren’t doing something as simple as manning the phones and returning all calls within a few hours,” says Banerjee. “Bad news travels fast. The retail investors who call IROs are the ones with loud voices, and if their calls aren’t returned, they’ll go on the bulletin boards and tell everyone their story. You can’t really slack on the basics like returning a phone call in a timely manner.” | Read Article |

Nearly everyone’s key investor relations focus is the institutional accounts, as this is where stock concentration exists. But when you think about it, whether you are dealing with a mutual fund or a pension fund, the institutional portfolio manager really just represents retail accounts. | Read Article |

For some time there has been an ongoing debate about how business operations affect the health and sustainability of communities and the environment. Today, for leading corporations, the debate is over. They've moved on. They know their responsibilities to people and the planet – and know that fulfilling these responsibilities builds long-term value for shareholders. | Read Article |

We have entered a new age of shareholder activism. It became a major corporate governance phenomenon in the United States in the 2000s. This trend accelerated in recent years and was evident more frequently in Canada. Shareholders are fed up with diminishing returns and high payments to executives. They want change, and are not willing to wait forever as their investment horizons get shorter. The recent increase in activist shareholder activity in Canada is shifting the shareholder/company relationship. Shareholders appear to be increasingly willing to take advantage of legal mechanisms to force boards and management to respond. | Read Article |

Canadian securities regulatory authorities are concerned that selective disclosure, or “tipping”, creates opportunities for insider trading and undermines the confidence of the investing public in the marketplace as a level playing field. | Read Article |

Like many, I find myself watching with a sort of morbid fascination as new and often strange scenarios unfold as a result of social media. Society’s seemingly unending appetite for news and the always-on nature of social media have converged to create an environment that is ripe for entertaining (and disturbing!) mishaps. | Read Article |