IR Society Celebrates the Power of IR at The Tower of London

LONDON, November 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

At Tuesday night's annual Investor Relations Society Best Practice Awards dinner at the Tower of London, the IR Society recognised those companies that are leading the way in engaging with the capital markets, building trust, and strengthening corporate reputation.

This premier event in the IR calendar was hosted by the comedian Shappi Khorsandi and saw over 500 IR professionals gathered together.

There were two sets of awards presented - the self-entry awards, with the winners determined by a panel of judges, and the voted awards, with the winners determined by votes cast by the buy- and sell-sides.

Thirteen different companies collected the seventeen self-entry awards, of which four were double award winners on the night. British Land triumphed in the FTSE 100 categories with best overall communication of company investment proposition, and most effective integration of sustainability reporting into communications.  Go-Ahead Group was another double award winner of the night, winning best use of digital communications, as well as best overall communication of company investment proposition in the FTSE 250 categories. In the small-cap and AIM categories, Trifast impressed with two awards for best annual report and best use of digital communications. BASF once again collected two International awards for best use of digital communications and best overall communication of company investment proposition.

Sue Scholes, Chair of the IR Society, said:

"This event celebrates one of the Society's key reasons for existing - to promote best practice in investor relations and I would like to thank all those who put their work forward for an award. The standard was high and the judging decisions were often difficult - and that's how it should be. Our winners - both voted and judged - all understand what differentiates their company and are able to communicate this clearly and consistently. Congratulations to them all."

In the voted awards, AstraZeneca celebrated winning Best Overall Company IR. The IR team was commended for their deep understanding of both the business and what capital markets need. Congratulations also go to Adam Phillips at Halfords Group for winning Best Newcomer to IR and to David Walker, who was named Best IRO for the second year running.

Click here for a full list of award winners. 

About the awards 

The self-entry awards are open to all companies that wish to demonstrate their commitment to good investor communications. This year's awards saw over 150 entries and the overall quality of entries remains high and the process competitive. The awards are designed to reflect changes in the operating and regulatory environment that have led to the need for faster, clearer and more dynamic investor communications.

Entries are scored against criteria based on the Society's guidelines for best practice in investor communications. We also ask companies to add a statement of their own to support the entry. This gives companies an opportunity to share their approach to the award and to highlight what works for them and their audience. Having completed the scoring on both a quantitative and qualitative basis, shortlists are submitted to a panel of judges drawn from users of annual reports and accounts. The winners were chosen from the shortlist.

The judging panel for 2015 was:
Sue Scholes (Chair) - Chair of the Investor Relations Society
John Daly, Listcorp
Hilary Eastman, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Jessica Fries, The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Project
Tim Goodman, Hermes Investment Management
Sue Harding - FRC Financial Reporting Lab
Liz Murrall - Investment Association
Nigel Sleigh-Johnson - ICAEW
Peter Swabey - ICSA
Thomas Toomse-Smith, FRC Financial Reporting Lab
Martin Walker - Manchester Business School

For the voted awards, which recognise excellence in individual and team investor relations, we were delighted to be working in partnership with WeConvene Extel who has helped us to address a larger audience and voting universe comprising the buy- and sell-sides. The nominations included 293 companies and 388 IROs, of which 34 were newcomers to the industry.

Notes for editors: 

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 700 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 advisors and service providers. For more information visit www.irs.org.uk or connect with us on Twitter (@IRSocietyUK) or LinkedIn

For further information contact:
The Investor Relations Society
John Gollifer - General Manager +44-(0)20-7379-1763