BASF continued its winning streak by picking up four awards at the UK IR Society’s Best Practice Awards last night.
The German chemicals company won in all four categories in which it had been nominated, including the grand prix for best overall annual report by an international company.
The IR Society’s Best Practice Awards have a particular interest in corporate reporting and the main prizes focus on the companies with the most effective annual reports, considering both print and online versions.
BASF also picked up awards for best communication of corporate responsibility in the annual report, best use of a website and most effective use of online technology to support a company’s investment proposition.
This success builds on BASF’s triumph earlier this year at the IR Magazine Europe Awards, when it took home the grand prix for best overall IR by a large-cap company.
Other big winners on the night include property group Land Securities, which claimed the prize for the most effective annual report by a FTSE 100 company. Another property company, Great Portland Estates, bagged the award for best annual report by a FTSE 250 company, while the award for best annual report by small and AIM companies went to Next Fifteen Communications Group.
The IR community has been quick to congratulate BASF on Twitter. Kay Bommer, general manager of DIRK, the German IR association, tweeted: ‘Congratulation to the entire BASF IR team for a great job and four awards well deserved.’
Many other users of the micro-blogging site also tweeted their congratulations.
The winning companies were picked by a panel of judges drawn from professional users of company accounts, including John Dawson, deputy chairman of the IR Society and former head of IR at Cadbury; Marc Jobling, a director at the Association of British Insurers; and the National Association of Pension Funds’ head of corporate governance, David Paterson.
