Last year was the sixth year IR magazine celebrated the best investor relations in Asia. But it was only the second time that we held individual conferences and awards events in both Hong Kong and Beijing.
To identify the winners, TNS Hong Kong surveyed 342 investors and analysts from across Asia, collected their votes and solicited comments like: ‘Sinopec has strong and powerful management – vital for good governance.’
Sinopec was just one of this year’s standout winners, taking home the grand prix and two other awards in Beijing. In Hong Kong, TSMC collected an amazing six awards, including the grand prix. ‘IR is a people business,’ declared IR chief Elizabeth Sun at our conference earlier in the day. ‘You need brains and you need heart. And you need the right people – your team.’
Sun says TSMC’s success is down to values, competitive positioning, business model, strategic plans, execution and results. ‘Always tell the truth, even when it hurts – but tell it well,’ she exhorted the conference participants.
Also in Hong Kong, Karrie International won all hearts as it moved up the rankings to win the grand prix for best overall IR by a small or mid-cap Hong Kong company. CFO Alfred Chow charmed delegates with a speech about how a firm with less than US$200 mn has succeeded in getting its name on the institutional radar screen.
Getting the message across
‘After studying various small caps in Hong Kong, we decided to rebrand Karrie to convey three simple messages: our dividend, professional management and corporate governance,’ Chow described. The message also goes to Asia’s growing affluent middle-class via a ‘blue ocean strategy’ of easy-to-read annual reports and retail investor ‘tea breaks’.
In Beijing, China Vanke was nominated for seven awards and won five. Shirley Xiao, head of IR, chalks up much of Vanke’s success to good governance. ‘During the past three years we paid a lot of attention to changing policies because we are in an environment of change,’ she comments. ‘We passed our views to investors, helping them make rational decisions. In fact, the negative environment has helped us to distinguish ourselves.’
Bank of China was the one company that won awards in both Hong Kong and Beijing: best IR for an IPO and best IR for a corporate transaction, respectively. That was just reward for having defied a miserable market at the beginning of June to unleash what was then the world’s biggest IPO in six years. During BoC’s nine-day global roadshow for its H-share listing, two teams, one led by the chairman and the other by the CEO, visited eleven major cities in Asia, Europe and the US, meeting with 670 institutional investors.
Just a month later, in advance of a Shanghai A-share listing, the two roadshow teams saw 96 institutional investors in five Chinese cities. ‘If there is a secret to winning the award, we believe it is solid homework, and fair and truthful disclosure to all investors,’ says a spokesperson from BoC.
During BoC’s first H-share roadshow, questions about the Chinese macroeconomic outlook and the bank’s strategy were raised in almost every one-on-one meeting. How could BoC differentiate itself from other large commercial banks in increasingly fierce competition? ‘Clear strategic positioning enabled us to give a clear and convincing response to investors,’ says the spokesperson.
IR bridge
Chen Ying, CFO of Baoshan Iron & Steel (Baosteel), was on hand in Beijing to pick up the award for most progress in IR – for the second year in a row. As she collected her trophy, Chen joked that she hoped Baosteel had now progressed sufficiently to qualify for a different award next year.
Since Baosteel listed in December 2000, Chen says the IR program has developed along with the growing demand of investors, especially international ones, to know more about the company. ‘We have been learning best practice IR, drawing advice from professional IR firms and investment banks,’ she adds. ‘We see IR as a bridge connecting our investors to our management.’
Chen describes a reporting system to feed back shareholding changes, analyst reports and investor questions to senior management and the board. She recalls, for example, when shareholders suggested a long-term dividend policy. ‘Our board thought it was a good idea,’ Chen recounts. ‘So our 2004 AGM approved Baosteel’s policy that our cash dividend be no less than 40 percent of our annual net profit.’
The secret to Baosteel’s success? ‘If there is any secret, I think it is that our senior management has attached great importance to IR,’ Chen concludes.
