New IR benefits Norwegian firms. (Business Briefs).

It isn't just U.S.-based public companies that are benefiting from new investor relations communication techniques. The Oslo Bors stock exchange is offering IR services to over 200 companies publicly traded on the Norwegian Exchange through a partnership with Shareholder.com, based in Maynard, Mass.

This partnership delivers the latest communications technologies to connect these companies with their international shareholders, including multilingual JR Web sites, integrated email and news broadcasts, and dynamic interactive documents such as annual reports. The result: Norwegian companies are better able to communicate with their investors and improve corporate governance policies and practices.

"An objective of the Oslo Bors is to ensure that the market operates effectively, and this requires investor confidence and trust," said Hege Sjo, market director at Oslo Bors. "A high degree of transparency and good communication between the companies and the market is vital to secure that trust, which is why we are collaborating with Shareholder.com to offer these investor communications solutions," he added.

Norwegian companies will be using Shareholder.com's SimplifySuite, a total JR communications package, and will also have access to the company's Dialog2 communications portal, a secure Web-based utility that allows clients to manage all inbound and outbound communications in real time, including the ability to update their Web sites with current information as their announcements are disclosed.