Brazil’s economy has showed promising signs over the last year, encouraging investors to return to the country and making it one of the top-performing markets in 2016. Nevertheless, trouble never feels far away. Economic growth remains weak and markets had a timely reminder of the challenges facing the country in May when news broke that President Michel Temer could be directly involved in an ongoing corruption scandal.
Against this backdrop, Brazilian companies came together on June 21 at Villa Bisutti in São Paulo for the IR Magazine Awards – Brazil 2017. The event this year looked back over all the research conducted for previous IR Magazine Awards in Brazil to honor companies that have maintained their investor relations standards throughout the country’s ups and downs.
Randon and Vale were the biggest winners on the night. The heavy vehicle manufacturer claimed three awards, including the gong for best overall investor relations (small & mid-cap). Mining giant Vale, meanwhile, took home the gongs for best annual report, best IR website (large cap) and best conference call.
Education company Kroton performed well in the individual categories: Carlos Lazar won best investor relations officer (large cap) and Rodrigo Galindo, Kroton’s chief executive, won best IR by a CEO or CFO. Elsewhere, Natura, a pioneer of non-financial communications and the first publicly listed company anywhere to achieve the sustainability certification known as B Corp, fittingly picked up the award for best sustainability practice.
In total, IR Magazine handed out 14 awards to companies and individuals. The night was hosted by Denise Barbosa, a reporter at GloboNews since 2010 and a former Bloomberg TV presenter.
This article appeared in the Fall 2017 issue of IR Magazine