IR Website Checklist

The basics

First of all, for every company with a website, there are a few key pieces of information that need to be on display. All companies, public or private, are legally required to show this information:

• The registered company name
• The company’s registered number
• The registered office address
• The country in which the company is registered
• The fact that it’s a limited or public company (usually covered by simply spelling out the company’s full name including ‘Limited’ or ‘PLC’)
• Contact details, including an email address, including how to contact the business by non-electronic means
• The VAT number of business, if it has one
• Details of any trade body or regulator registration

Further to this, there is an additional rule that if you want to include directors’ names, you must list all of them.

Making accommodations for users

Your website must be accessible to everyone who needs it. If it isn’t, you may be in breach of the Equality Act 2010. This means meeting level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) as a minimum.

Data protection

If you are processing any kind of user data, which includes setting cookies on their devices, you are required to have a privacy policy explaining who controls the data (either your company, or the third parties you use for things like analytics) and what you do with it.

Public companies

For public companies there are then a number of additional regulations to follow.

Remuneration policies

The SRD II (Shareholder Rights Directive) was an EU law that got transposed into UK law after Brexit. It means that all listed companies, whether AIM or Main Market, have to publish a remuneration policy. This can be either on their website or released as a regulatory news announcement.

Additional rules for AIM companies

AIM companies are expected to follow a whole list of extra regulations known as AIM Rule 26.

The first part of Rule 26 is that all AIM companies must have a publicly available website. On this website there are specific items that must be included. This information can be anywhere but some companies choose to make a specific Rule 26 page.

• A description of the business activities and the location it operates in 
• All stock exchanges the company is listed on
• The number of shares in issue, with the number of treasury shares noted, if applicable
• A list of major shareholders
  • Where the company has received a notification that a shareholder has gone over 3%
  • Important note: This threshold changes to 1% when in an offer period under the Takeover Code
• A list of outstanding warrants, options, and other securities in the stock
• Names and biographical descriptions of the company’s directors
• Details of the company’s nominated adviser (NOMAD), PR agency, lawyers, accountants
• Constitutional documents such as the company’s articles of association
• Whether the company is subject to the UK City Code on Takeovers and Mergers and any other relevant legislation
• Annual accounts, and these should be made available for a period of at least five years
• All notifications (via RNS or another primary information provider) that the AIM company has made in the past 12 months 
• All inside information that it has been required to disclose publicly. Even if this has been done via RNS it must be kept on the website for a period of at least five years.

As you can see, not only have you got to make sure your website is attractive and informative for investors, but there are also a large number of rules and regulations to follow.

If you’d like a free review of your website get in touch with the Copia team and we would be happy to offer some advice.