Thursday, December 10, 2009
NASDAQ OMX Baltic announces winners of The Baltic Market Awards
Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; and Vilnius, Lithuania
At the Baltic Market Awards ceremony on Thursday, December 10, 2009 NASDAQ OMX Baltic, part of the NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ), announced the companies from the NASDAQ OMX Baltic market awarded the best Investor Relations (IR) in 2009, as well as the Member of the Year.
TEO LT was awarded the Best Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries. This was the third time the company won this award. The company scored 98 points out of 100 possible. The other candidates for this award were Tallinna Vesi and SAF Tehnika. Apart from being awarded the Best Investor Relations in the Baltic countries, TEO LT was also awarded the Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Vilnius.
Tallinna Vesi was awarded for the Best Annual Report. In addition, the company had the highest overall score among Estonian companies and received the award for the Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Tallinn.
SAF Tehnika was awarded for the Best Investor Relations among Small Cap Companies and for the Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Riga. This was the fourth consecutive year that the company received both awards, thanks to its continuous efforts and focus on investor relations.
The Most Visible Improvement over the year in Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries was made by City Service from Lithuania, which increased its score by 19%.
For the award Best Investor Relations Online, four companies had the maximum score. The Baltic Market Awards evaluation committee therefore decided to award all four companies – Grindeks, SAF Tehnika, TEO LT and VST.
Since the market quality is driven not only by issuers but also by exchange members, The Member of the Year in the Baltic countries award was given to AB SEB bankas from Lithuania, acknowledging its trading activity, commitment to market development and strong customer focus.
“The Baltic Market Awards is not just about the progress made by the winning companies. The average score for the Baltic companies has increased by almost 6 percent since last year, thus making a remarkable 50 percent progress since 2006, when the Baltic Market Awards was introduced. We strongly believe that the way a company is doing its business and communicating with its shareholders matters. It is about ethics, transparency and governance. Investor Relations is an asset that plays an important role in companies’ sustainability and its ability to raise additional capital for growth,” said Henrik Elfving, NASDAQ OMX Vice President / Baltic market.
The Baltic Market Awards was introduced in 2006. The aim of the project is to highlight the best achievements in IR among listed companies and motivate companies to focus on investor relations and adapt best practices, as well provide companies with individual evaluation and consultancy advice from the exchange side. Each company is evaluated by more than 100 criteria, including the quality of annual and interim reports, disclosures, web page and analysts’ opinions. This year 58 companies were evaluated.
The members of the Evaluation Committee represent academics, investors and representatives of the Baltic Stock exchanges; it was chaired by Geoffrey Mazullo, Director of the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program, East-West Management Institute. The company analysis was conducted by students from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, under the supervision of the evaluation committee and the NASDAQ OMX Baltic exchanges.
The list of winners:
The Best Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries – TEO LT
The Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Tallinn – Tallinna Vesi
The Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Riga – SAF Tehnika
The Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Vilnius – TEO LT
The Best Investor Relations among Small Cap Companies – SAF Tehnika
The Best Annual Report – Tallinna Vesi
The Best Investor Relations Online - Grindeks, SAF Tehnika, TEO LT, VST
The Most Visible Improvement over the Year – City Service
The Member of the Year in the Baltic countries - AB SEB bankas
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
PFS Program’s 13th Regional Survey – Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in 11 CEE Countries
Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its 13th semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. PFS Program Interns Kamila Andrukiewicz (Poland), Aleksa Mihajlovic (Serbia), Irena Petkovska (Macedonia) and Anna Wolska (Poland) conducted the survey, under the supervision of PFS Program Director Geoffrey Mazullo, from August 1 through September 30, 2009.
Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the 13th time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the 12th time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the 11th time. Moreover, a seventh analysis of peer companies (the ten largest listed companies by market capitalization) in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as Ukraine allows for ongoing benchmarking with these emerging market peers.
PFS Program surveys analyze the annual reports and websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned 11 CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the semi-annual surveys of reporting on CSR represent a snapshot of this peer group’s CSR disclosure practices on a given day twice a year. Furthermore, by analyzing disclosures in both annual reports and websites, the surveys track the timing of the publication of the annual report and the related yet separate issue of periodic disclosure, namely, how blue-chip companies keep their websites data-rich and up-to-date. The surveys enable companies to benchmark their disclosure practices against peers on a national, industry and regional basis.
This survey analyzes companies’ disclosures in English (in the English-language annual report and on the English-language company website) during the time period August 1 – September 16, 2009 on the following three topics: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. The record date for the disclosures is September 16, 2009.
On September 16, 2009 all ten companies surveyed in all CEE countries except Croatia, Romania and Slovenia have an English-language website. 96% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have a 2008 or 2007 English-language annual report online on the same record date.
In marked contrast to all 12 previous surveys, this edition of the survey documents increased disclosure in almost all areas analyzed. In 27 of the 30 categories surveyed, disclosure increased. In some categories, the increase was significant. Disclosure of information on shareholder rights increased in the annual report to 69%, from 47% in April 2009 and on company websites to 64%, from 51% in April 2009. Disclosure of information on environmental considerations in supply chain management increased in the annual report to 24%, from 19% in April 2009 and on company websites to 39%, from 30% in April 2009. In these and many other categories, new thresholds were attained. In three categories of social policy, disclosure in the annual report decreased.
45 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (41%) issue a stand-alone English-language environmental, social and governance (ESG) report, compared with 41 companies (37%) in April 2009 and 28 companies (25%) in September 2008. This is the first time that the 40% threshold has been exceeded, and represents continuation of an ongoing trend during the past two years.
It also demonstrates that gap between best-practice in extra-financial reporting in CEE blue-chip companies is closing vis-à-vis peers in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). In BRIC, 19 companies (47.5%) issue a stand-alone English-language ESG report in September 2009. The number is unchanged since April 2009, and represents a slight increase vis-à-vis 18 companies in September 2008. As a group, BRIC blue-chips generally outperform CEE peers; however, the gap continues to narrow and a few CEE countries approach the disclosure levels found in BRIC. One Ukrainian company issues a stand-alone English-language ESG report in September 2009.
Survey findings include the following:
- 97% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website on the record date of September 16, 2009, compared with 95% in April 2009, 96% in September 2008, 96% in April 2008, 94.5 % in September 2007, 94% in April 2007, 94% in September 2006, 87% in April 2006, 89% in September 2005 and 82% in April 2005. In comparison, 100% of the BRIC companies surveyed and 60% of the Ukrainian companies surveyed have an English-language website.
- 96% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have either a 2008 or 2007 English-language annual report online on the record date of September 16, 2009 compared with 92% in April 2009, 94% in September 2008, 87% in April 2008, 81% in September 2007, 84% in April 2007, 71% in September 2006, % in April 2006 and % in September 2005. In comparison, 100% of companies in BRIC and 20% in Ukraine have a 2008 or 2007 English-language annual report available online.
- 79% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed disclose employee development/benefits policies in the (2008 or 2007) annual report available online on September 16, 2009. This is the highest percentage recorded since the first survey was conducted in August 2003 and the first time that the 75% threshold was exceeded.
- 77 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (70%) disclose implementation of a corporate governance code in the (2008 or 2007) annual report available online as of September 16, 2009, compared with 57 companies (52%) in April 2009 and 60 companies (54.5%) in September 2008. This is the first time since the survey was first conducted that disclosure of information regarding compliance with a corporate governance code in the annual report available online reached the 70% threshold.
- 55% of the CEE companies surveyed disclose information on compliance with a corporate governance code on their website, compared with 41% in April 2009 and 42% in September 2008. This is the first time since the survey was first conducted that more than 50% of the CEE companies surveyed disclose information regarding compliance with a corporate governance code on their website.
- 53% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed report on environmental performance in the (2007 or 2008) annual report available online on September 16, 2009. This is the highest percentage recorded since the first survey was conducted in August 2003 and the first time that the 50% threshold was exceeded. The percentage was 43% in April 2009, 34.5% in September 2008, 30% in April 2008, 33% in September 2007, 14% in April 2007, 25% in September 2006, 18% in April 2006 and 22% in September 2005.
- 45 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (41%) issue a stand-alone English-language environmental, social and governance (ESG) report, compared with 41 companies (37%) in April 2009 and 28 companies (25%) in September 2008. This is the first time that the 40% threshold has been exceeded, and represents continuation of an ongoing trend during the past two years.
Note: The survey consists of the following documents: a report of the survey findings presenting data aggregated by country; a database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in each of the 11 CEE countries; and a separate database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in BRIC and Ukraine.
A list of companies with stand-alone English-language ESG reports is an appendix to the survey and is published here as a separate document.
To download the survey, the databases and a separate list of companies that publish a stand-alone English-language ESG report, please click on the links below:
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
PFS Program’s 17th Regional Survey - Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Ten Largest Listed Companies in 11 CEE Countries
Today, the PFS Program publishes its 17th semi-annual regional survey: Investor Relations Online - Survey of Websites of the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. PFS Program Interns Piotr Liberski (Poland) and Irena Petkovska (Macedonia) as well as PFS Program Research Assistant Igor Solodovnik conducted the survey from July 1 through August 17, 2009.
In this edition of the survey, disclosure of detailed governance information increased in all categories surveyed, except in the local-language website category, where a slight decrease was recorded.
91% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online. This is the largest percentage recorded since the surveys began in 2001 and represents a slight increase vis-à-vis 84% in February 2009, 88% in August 2008 and 90% in February 2008. 68% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about management online; this is also the largest percentage recorded since the first survey, representing an increase vis-à-vis 61% in February 2009, 64% in August 2008 and 63% in February 2008. 89% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online, compared with 85% in February 2009, 91% in August 2008 and 87% in February 2008. 64% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about board members online; this is also a record high percentage, compared with 56% in February 2009, 61% in August 2008 and 52% in February 2008.
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Ten Largest Listed Companies in 11 CEE Countries analyzes the websites of the ten largest listed companies in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. For the seventh time, the survey also analyzes companies in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as well as Ukraine in order to compare the online disclosure practices of CEE listed companies with peers in other emerging markets.
The survey analyzes the English-language websites and annual reports of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this ‘blue-chip’ peer group. Although the market capitalization of companies changes over time, the semi-annual surveys represent a snapshot of disclosure practices of the blue-chip peer group on a given day twice a year. Since the definition of the survey universe has remained the same since the first survey, the surveys provide time-series data for CEE blue-chip companies and thus enable the identification of online disclosure trends as well as best practice within the peer group.
The survey provides current data as of August 17, 2009 and comparisons with the 16 previous surveys, conducted in February 2009, August 2008, February 2008, August 2007, February 2007, August 2006, February 2006, August 2005, February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001.
The survey contains information compiled in the following groups and sub-groups:
- Current data on 110 companies in 11 CEE countries;
- Separate data on 80 companies in eight CEE countries that joined the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004;
- Separate data on 30 companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania;
- Comparisons of the data from this current survey with data from the previous 16 conducted every August and February since August 2001; and
- Separate data on 40 companies in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as 10 companies in Ukraine.
Survey results include the following:
Websites: In eight of the 11 CEE countries surveyed, each of the ten largest listed companies has a local-language website. In Estonia and Slovakia, nine of the ten companies surveyed and in Czech Republic seven of the ten companies surveyed have a local-language website. The three listed companies in the Czech Republic that do not have a local-language website are “foreign” companies listed on the Prague Stock Exchange. Each of the ten companies surveyed in Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia has an English-language website. 90% of the companies surveyed in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia as well as 80% of the companies surveyed in Croatia have an English-language website.
Information on Management: As noted above, 91% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online. This is the largest percentage recorded since the surveys began in 2001 and represents a slight increase vis-à-vis 84% in February 2009, 88% in August 2008 and 90% in February 2008. 68% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about management online; this is also the largest percentage recorded since the first survey, representing an increase vis-à-vis 61% in February 2009, 64% in August 2008 and 63% in February 2008.
Information on Board Members: 89% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online, compared with 85% in February 2009, 91% in August 2008 and 87% in February 2008. 64% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about board members online; this also represents a record high percentage and a significant increase, compared with 56% in February 2009, 61% in August 2008 and 52% in February 2008.
Best Practice: Since 2004, the survey includes recommendations on the ideal corporate website and compares CEE companies with the parameters of this ideal. On August 17, 2009 64 of the 110 companies surveyed in CEE (58%) disclose information in all of the categories analyzed in the basic PFS Program survey: local-language website; English-language website; list of management; list of board members; additional information on management; and additional information on board members. These 64 companies were examined according to best practice parameters. (In February 2009 52 of the 110 companies surveyed (47%) disclosed the above-mentioned basic information, compared with 56 of the 110 companies surveyed (51%) in August 2008.) On August 17, 2009 29 of the 110 companies surveyed in CEE (26%) provide all of the “ideal” recommended information: Five companies provide information directly on their company website; and 24 companies provide information indirectly through an annual report available online.
Comparisons with BRIC and Ukraine: The largest listed companies in BRIC disclose more information in this survey than in the previous survey. In all categories surveyed, companies in BRIC outperform peers in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004. The largest gaps exist in providing additional information on management and on board members. However, in contrast, the most transparent of the largest listed companies in CEE slightly outperform their peers in BRIC in terms of providing detailed governance information online, either on the company website or in an annual report available online. Also, in several CEE markets the results are impressive. In August 2009 all ten companies surveyed in Poland provide information in each category surveyed; in February 2009 all ten companies surveyed in Hungary provided information in each category surveyed. These are the first such cases since the first survey was conducted in 2001.
- Each of the companies surveyed in BRIC (100%) has a local-language website. In the CEE-11 countries, 95% of the companies surveyed have a local-language website. (In eight of the 11 CEE countries surveyed, each of the 10 companies surveyed has a local- language website. In Estonia and Slovakia, nine of the ten companies surveyed have a local-language website. In the Czech Republic, seven of the ten companies surveyed have a local-language website.) In Ukraine, eight of the ten companies surveyed have a local-language website.
- Each of the companies surveyed in BRIC (100%) has an English website, compared with 95.5% in CEE-11, 99% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 50% in Ukraine.
- 97.5% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide a list of management online, compared with 91% in the CEE-11 and 94% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004. In Ukraine 20% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online.
- 90% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide additional information on management online, compared with 68% in the CEE-11, 76% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 10% in Ukraine.
- 100% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide a list of board members online, compared with 89% in the CEE, 92.5% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 20% in Ukraine.
- 95% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide additional information on board members online, compared with 64.5% in CEE-11, 74% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 10% in Ukraine.
To download the survey, a presentation of survey results and the company database, please click on the links below:
Friday, May 8, 2009
PFS Program’s 12th Regional Survey – Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in 11 CEE Countries
Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its 12th semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. PFS Program Intern Rafal Nagadowski (Poland) and PFS Program Research Assistant Igor Solodovnik conducted the survey from February 16 through April 15, 2009.
Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the 12th time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the 11th time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the tenth time. Moreover, a sixth analysis of peer companies (the ten largest listed companies by market capitalization) in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as Ukraine allows for ongoing benchmarking with these emerging market peers.
PFS Program surveys analyze the annual reports and websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned 11 CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the semi-annual surveys of reporting on CSR represent a snapshot of this peer group’s CSR disclosure practices on a given day twice a year. Furthermore, by analyzing disclosures in both annual reports and websites, the surveys track the timing of the publication of the annual report and the related yet separate issue of periodic disclosure, namely, how blue-chip companies keep their websites data-rich and up-to-date. The surveys enable companies to benchmark their disclosure practices against peers on a national, industry and regional basis.
This survey analyzes companies’ disclosures in English (in the English-language annual report and on the English-language company website) during the time period February 16 – April 15, 2009 on the following three topics: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. The record date for the disclosures is April 15, 2009.
This edition of the survey documents a significant increase in the number of CEE blue chip companies issuing stand-alone English-language environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports; 41 companies now issue such a report, compared with 28 companies in September 2008. In marked contrast to all 11 of the previous surveys, disclosure of corporate governance information remained relatively stable whereas disclosure of environmental and social data increased, reflecting incremental increases in almost all countries. More companies provide information on supply chain management both in annual reports and on company websites, compared with the previous survey published in October 2008. Disclosure of information about compliance with labor standards, health and safety policy and listed employment policy also increased; here too the increase in disclosure in both annual reports and company websites was seen in companies in almost all countries.
In BRIC, 19 companies issued a stand-alone English-language ESG report in April 2009, compared with 17 in September 2008. In particular, there was more disclosure of information about compliance with a corporate governance code and employment policy. In other areas, disclosures remained roughly the same or decreased slightly. As a group, BRIC blue-chips generally outperform CEE peers; however, the gap continues to narrow and a few CEE countries approach the disclosure levels found in BRIC.
Survey findings include the following:
- 95% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website on the record date of April 15, 2009, compared with 96% in September 2008, 96% in April 2008, 94.5 % in September 2007, 94% in April 2007, 94% in September 2006, 87% in April 2006, 89% in September 2005 and 82% in April 2005. In comparison, 100% of the BRIC companies surveyed and 90% of the Ukrainian companies surveyed have an English-language website.
- 92% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have either a 2008 or 2007 English-language annual report online on the record date of April 15, 2009 compared with 94% in September 2008, 93% in April 2008, 89% in September 2007, 85% in April 2007, 71% in September 2006, 78% in September 2005 and 65% in August 2004. In comparison, 100% of companies in BRIC and 30% in Ukraine have a 2008 or 2007 English-language annual report available online.
- 56% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed disclose information on employment policy in the annual report available online on April 15, 2009, compared with 27% in September 2008. 45% of the companies surveyed disclose this information on their website in April 2009; compared with 25% in September and April 2008.
- 55 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (50%) disclose their health and safety policy in the (2007 or 2008) annual report available online on April 15, 2009, compared with 38 companies (35%) in September 2008. 41 of the companies surveyed (37.2%) disclose this information on the company website in April 2009, compared with 36% in September 2008.
- 45% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed disclose the information about labor standards in the annual report available online on April 15, 2009. This is a significant improvement compared with 19% in September 2008, 11% in April 2008, 9% in September 2007, 15% in April 2007 and 14% in September 2006. 32% of the companies surveyed disclose compliance with labor standards on their website in April 2008, whereas 22-23% of companies disclosed this information on the company website in September 2008, April 2008 and September 2007. In April 2007 only 15% of companies disclosed this information online.
- 41 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (37%) publish an English-language stand-alone ESG report online on the record date of April 15, 2009. This is a significant improvement vis-à-vis 28 companies (26%) in September 2008.
- 21 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (19%) disclose information on the integration of environmental considerations in supply chain management in the annual report available online on April 15, 2009, whereas on September 15 2008 only six (5%) did so. 33 of the companies surveyed (30%) disclose this information on their website in April 2009, compared with 15.4% in September 2008, 17% in April 2008, 16% in September 2007 and 26% in April 2007.
Note: The survey consists of the following documents: a report of the survey findings presenting data aggregated by country; a database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in each of the 11 CEE countries; and a separate database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in BRIC and Ukraine.
A list of companies with stand-alone English-language ESG reports is an appendix to the survey and is published as a separate document.
To download the survey, the databases and a separate list of companies that publish a stand-alone English-language ESG report, please click on the links below:
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
PFS Program’s 16th Regional Survey - Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Ten Largest Listed Companies in 11 CEE Countries
Today, the PFS Program publishes its 16th semi-annual regional survey: Investor Relations Online - Survey of Websites of the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. PFS Program Research Assistant Igor Solodovnik conducted the survey from January 15 through February 28, 2009.
In this edition of the survey, disclosure of detailed governance information decreased slightly in all categories surveyed. Thus, the positive trends observed in 2008 have not been sustained.
84% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online, compared with 88% in August 2008 and 90% in February 2008. 61% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about management online, compared with 64% in August 2008 and 63% in February 2008. 85.5% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online, compared with 91% in August 2008 and 87% in February 2008. 56% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about board members online, compared with 61% in August 2008 and 52% in February 2008.
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Ten Largest Listed Companies in 11 CEE Countries analyzes the websites of the ten largest listed companies in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. For the sixth time, the survey also analyzes companies in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as well as Ukraine in order to compare the online disclosure practices of CEE listed companies with peers in other emerging markets.
The survey analyzes the English-language websites and annual reports of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this ‘blue-chip’ peer group. Although the market capitalization of companies changes over time, the semi-annual surveys represent a snapshot of disclosure practices of the blue-chip peer group on a given day twice a year. Since the definition of the survey universe has remained the same since the first survey, the surveys provide time-series data for CEE blue-chip companies and thus enable the identification of online disclosure trends as well as best practice within the peer group.
The survey provides current data as of February 15, 2009 and comparisons with the 15 previous surveys, conducted in August 2008, February 2008, August 2007, February 2007, August 2006, February 2006, August 2005, February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001.
The survey contains information compiled in the following groups and sub-groups:
- Current data on 110 companies in 11 CEE countries;
- Separate data on 80 companies in eight CEE countries that joined the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004;
- Separate data on 30 companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania;
- Comparisons of the data from this current survey with data from the previous 15 conducted every August and February since August 2001; and
- Separate data on 40 companies in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as 10 companies in Ukraine.
Survey results include the following:
Websites: In ten of the 11 CEE countries surveyed, each of the ten largest listed companies has a local-language website. In Czech Republic eight of the ten companies surveyed have a local-language website. Each of the ten companies surveyed in Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia has an English-language website. 90% of the companies surveyed in Bulgaria and Estonia, 80% in Croatia and 70% in Romania have an English-language website.
Information on Management: As noted above, the percentage of companies surveyed that provide a list of management online decreased to 84% in February 2009, from 88% in August 2008 and 90% in February 2008. 61% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about management online. This represents a slight decrease from the August 2008 survey when 64% of the companies surveyed disclosed this information, the largest percentage recorded since the surveys began in 2001. 63% of the companies surveyed disclosed this information in February 2008, compared with 59% in August 2007 and 53% in February 2007.
Information on Board Members: 85% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online, compared with 91% in August 2008 and 87% in February 2008. 56% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about board members online, compared with 61% in August 2008 and 52% in February 2008.
Best Practice: Since 2004, the survey includes recommendations on the ideal corporate website and compares CEE companies with the parameters of this ideal. On February 16, 2009 52 of the 110 companies surveyed in CEE (47%) disclose information in all of the categories analyzed in the basic PFS Program survey: local-language website; English-language website; list of management; list of board members; additional information on management; and additional information on board members. These 52 companies were examined according to best practice parameters. (In August 2008 56 of the 110 companies surveyed (51%) disclosed the above-mentioned basic information.)
Comparisons with BRIC and Ukraine: The largest listed companies in BRIC also disclose slightly less information in this survey than in the previous survey. Companies in BRIC generally outperform peers in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004; however, in two categories (English-language website and list of supervisory board members) companies in the eight CEE countries outperform peers in BRIC. The Ukrainian companies surveyed disclose less information than their peers in both BRIC and CEE; however, a slight improvement was recorded vis-à-vis the previous survey.
- Each of the companies surveyed in BRIC (100%) has a local language website. In the CEE-11 countries, 98% of the companies surveyed have a local language website. (In ten of the 11 CEE countries surveyed, each of the 10 companies surveyed has a local language website. In Czech Republic, eight of the ten companies surveyed have a local language website.) In Ukraine, each of the ten companies surveyed has a local language website.
- 95% of the companies surveyed in BRIC have an English website, compared with 94% in CEE-11, 99% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 70% in Ukraine.
- 98% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide a list of management online, compared with 84% in the CEE-11, 86% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 40% in Ukraine.
- 87.5% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide additional information on management online, compared with 61% in the CEE-11, 67.5% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 20% in Ukraine.
- 90% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide a list of board members online, compared with 85.5% in the CEE-11, 91% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 40% in Ukraine.
- 85% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide additional information on board members online, compared with 56% in CEE-11, 65% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 20% in Ukraine.
To download the survey, a presentation of survey results and the company database, please click on the links below:
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Companies with Best Investor Relations and Member of the Year in the Baltic Market Announced by NASDAQ OMX
Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; and Vilnius, Lithuania
NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. tonight announced the companies from NASDAQ OMX Baltic market with the best investor relations (IR) in 2008. The Baltic Market Awards ceremony took place simultaneously in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius, the capitals of the Baltic States. The live broadcast of the ceremony enabled an invited audience of more than six hundred guests to enjoy a single pan Baltic ceremony and congratulate the winners regardless of being physically located in different countries.
Investor relations in 2008 were evaluated and winners awarded in 5 categories
• The Best Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries - “SAF Tehnika”
• The Best Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries among Small Cap Companies – “SAF Tehnika”
• The Best Annual Report in the Baltic Countries – “VST”
• The Best Investor Relations Online in the Baltic Countries – “Grindeks”
• The most visible improvement over the year in the Baltic Countries – “Eesti Ehitus”
Also best companies in each Baltic stock exchange were announced:
• The Best Investor Relations in Tallinn Stock Exchange - “Baltika”
• The Best Investor Relations in Riga Stock Exchange - “SAF Tehnika”
• The Best Investor Relations in Vilnius Stock Exchange – “TEO LT”
In view that the market quality is driven not only by issuers but also by stock exchange members “The member of the year in the Baltic countries” award acknowledging the member with the highest trading activity and the best practices is also part of the Baltic Market Awards project. The Member of the Year prize for 2008 was awarded to “SEB Bankas” from Lithuania.
“Capital markets are by their nature dynamic and thus investor relations evolves continuously. Over the past five years, a number of drivers have significantly impacted investor relations in the Baltic Markets, among them: reporting requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), European Union directives and national legislation; adoption of corporate governance codes, increased standardization of extra-financial reporting of environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators; investor demands for improved corporate disclosure; information technology advancements and other drivers It is extremely encouraging to see the progress made in the Baltic Market over a short period of time, and we hope to continue to drive improvements in the future,” noted Geoffrey Mazullo, Chairman of the Baltic Market Awards Evaluation Committee and Director of the PFS Program.
“Excellence in investor relations is being honored. As an organization we value the power of IR; in fact we are unique as an exchange in the breadth and depth of support we provide to IR professionals. Congratulations to our 2008 winners and I invite all our issuers and members to use the network and possibilities that our global company offers to you not only in Baltics but also in Stockholm, London, NY and many other places in the world.
I also want to thank our excellent members for their support and extend particular thanks and congratulations to our member of the year,” said Bob Greifeld, CEO of The NASDAQ OMX Group addressing the winners and the audience.
The Baltic exchanges introduced The Baltic Market Awards in 2006. The aim of the project is to highlight best achievements in IR among listed companies and motivate companies to pay attention to investor relations and adapt best practices, as well provide companies with individual evaluation and consultancy from exchange side. Each company is evaluated by more than 100 criteria, comprising the quality of annual and periodical reports, disclosures, web page and analysts’ opinions. This year 68 companies were evaluated.
“We are pleased to see the improvement. The average score for Baltic companies has increased by 9,3 % in 2008. Since we started the project in 2006 the results have shown a remarkable 28% improvement which means companies have made a substantial effort to meet the needs of investors and communicate with them openly. Our Customer Surveys also show that The Baltic Market Awards initiative as such has been one of the driving forces behind the improvement. The biggest progress is related to the quality of periodic reports, web pages, and annual reports, the quality measure of those have almost doubled. However the quality of corporate disclosures does not show that remarkable results. This is still something that we expect companies to work on in the future,” said Henrik Elfving, president of NASDAQ OMX Baltic market.
The members of the Evaluation Committee represent academics, investors and the Baltic Stock exchanges; as noted above, it was chaired by Geoffrey Mazullo, Director of the PFS Program. The company analysis was conducted by students from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, under the supervision of the evaluation committee and the Stock Exchanges.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
PFS Program’s 11th Regional Survey – Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its 11th semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. This edition of the survey was co-financed by DWS Investments (Deutsche Bank Group). PFS Program Assistant Magdalena Grabowska, PFS Program Intern Tomasz Pieczyk (Poland), PFS Program Intern Nikola Smolcic (Croatia) and PFS Program Research Assistant Igor Solodovnik conducted the survey from July 1 through September 30, 2008.
Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the 11th time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the tenth time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the ninth time. Moreover, a fifth analysis of peer companies (the ten largest listed companies by market capitalization) in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as Ukraine allows for ongoing benchmarking with these emerging market peers.
PFS Program surveys analyze the annual reports and websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned 11 CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the semi-annual surveys of reporting on CSR represent a snapshot of this peer group’s CSR disclosure practices on a given day twice a year. Furthermore, by analyzing disclosures in both annual reports and websites, the surveys track the timing of the publication of the annual report and the related yet separate issue of periodic disclosure, namely, how blue-chip companies keep their websites data-rich and up-to-date. The surveys enable companies to benchmark their disclosure practices against peers on a national, industry and regional basis.
This survey analyzes companies’ disclosures in English (in the English-language annual report and on the English-language company website) during the time period July 1 – September 15, 2008 on the following three topics: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. The record date for the disclosures is September 15, 2008.
This edition of the survey documents a higher level of online disclosure of corporate governance information, continuing the trend over the past five years. More information is also disclosed in the area of social policy, compared with the previous survey published in April 2008. Disclosure of information about environmental performance and environmental standards as well as energy and water use increased, albeit from still low levels; significant progress remains to be made by most companies in disclosing detailed environmental data.
Overall, companies in BRIC outperform CEE peers in terms of the availability of English-language websites and annual reports as well as specific disclosures in all three areas. For example, 80% of the BRIC companies surveyed disclose compliance with a corporate governance code in the annual report, compared with 54% in CEE. 65% of the BRIC companies surveyed disclose information about company-specific code of business conduct/code of ethics in the annual report, compared with 16% in CEE. In general, BRIC companies also provide more information on social policy and environmental policy. However, the gap in all three areas is narrowing. Due to the lack of a number of drivers, Ukrainian companies lag behind both BRIC and CEE peers in all areas. However, the number of Ukrainian companies with English-language annual reports and websites continues to increase as does the amount of information disclosed in all three categories.
Survey findings include the following:
- 96% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website on the record date of September 15, 2008, compared with 96% in April 2008, 94.5 % in September 2007, 94% in April 2007, 94% in September 2006, 87% in April 2006, 89% in September 2005 and 82% in April 2005. In comparison, 100% of the BRIC companies surveyed and 70% of the Ukrainian companies surveyed have an English-language website.
- 94% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have a 2006/2007 English-language annual report online on the record date of September 15, 2008 compared with 100% in BRIC and 30% in Ukraine.
- 71% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed disclose information on employee development/benefits in their annual reports available online. This is a significant increase over the 64% recorded in the previous four surveys.
- Nine Polish, eight Slovene, eight Hungarian, six Estonian, five Czech, four Latvian, three Bulgarian companies, one Croatian, one Lithuanian and one Romanian company disclose information regarding compliance with a corporate governance code on the company website. Ten Estonian, nine Slovene, seven Polish, seven Czech, seven Lithuanian, six Slovak, five Bulgarian, four Hungarian, three Croatian and two Romanian companies disclose this information in the annual report. This is the first time since the survey was first conducted that more than 50% of the CEE companies surveyed disclose information regarding compliance with a corporate governance code in the annual report.
- 36% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed disclose information on listed health and safety policy on their website as of September 15, 2008, compared with 32% in April 2008, 30% in September 2007, 26% in April 2007, 21% in September 2006 and 12% in April 2006.
- 34% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed disclose information on environmental performance in annual reports available on their website on September 15, 2008 compared with 30% in April 2008, 33% in September 2007, 13% in April 2007, 25% in September 2006 and 18% in April 2006, 22% in September 2005, 24% in April 2005 and 27% in August 2004.
- 28 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (26%) publish a stand-alone English-language ESG report as of September 15, 2008. (This represents the same percentage as in the most recent survey, conducted in April 2008.) Of the 28 reports published in CEE on the current record day, 25 (89%) use recognized standards and eight (28%) include a third-party assurance statement. A list of companies that publish a stand-alone environmental, social and governance (ESG) report online in English may be found as a separate document below.
- 17 of the 40 BRIC companies surveyed (42.5%) publish a stand-alone English-language ESG report. Of the 17 reports published in BRIC, 15 (88%) use recognized standards and ten (59%) provide a third-party assurance. No Ukrainian company produces such a report as of the record date of September 15, 2008.
Note: The survey consists of the three following documents: a report of the survey findings presenting data aggregated by country; a database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in each of the 11 CEE countries; and a separate database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in BRIC and Ukraine.
To download the survey, the database and a separate list of companies that publish an English-language stand-alone ESG report, please click on the links below:
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
PFS Program’s 15th Regional Survey - Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the PFS Program publishes its 15th semi-annual Survey of Online Investor Relations of the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.” PFS Program Assistant Magdalena Grabowska and PFS Program Intern Nikola Smolcic (Croatia) conducted the survey from July 1 through August 31, 2008.
In this edition of the survey, disclosure of detailed govenance information in almost all categories remains at or reaches its highest level since the first survey was conducted in August 2001. This trend has been observed since February 2006 and may be viewed as sustainable.
91% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online, compared with 87% in February 2008, 82% in August 2007 and 81% in February 2007 as well as August 2006. This is the largest percentage recorded since the first survey and the first time that more than 90% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online. 61% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about board members online. This is also the largest percentage recorded since the first survey and the first time that more than 60% of the companies surveyed provide this information online. It represents a significant increase over the most recent survey (52% in August 2007) and previous surveys (51% in August 2007 and 40% in February 2007).
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in CEE analyzes the websites of the ten largest listed companies in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. For the fifth time, the survey also analyzes companies in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as well as Ukraine in order to compare the online disclosure practices of CEE listed companies with peers in other emerging markets.
The survey analyzes the English-language websites and annual reports of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this ‘blue-chip’ peer group. Although the market capitalization of companies changes over time, the semi-annual surveys represent a snapshot of disclosure practices of the blue-chip peer group on a given day twice a year. Since the definition of the survey universe has remained the same since the first survey, the surveys provide time-series data for CEE blue-chip companies and thus enable the identification of online disclosure trends as well as best practice within the peer group.
The survey provides current data as of August 15, 2008 and comparisons with the 14 previous surveys, conducted in February 2008, August 2007, February 2007, August 2006, February 2006, August 2005, February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001.
Survey results include the following:
Websites: In ten of the 11 CEE countries surveyed, each of the ten largest listed companies has a local-language website. In Czech Republic eight of the ten companies surveyed have a local-language website. Each of the ten companies surveyed in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia has an English-language website. 80% of the companies surveyed in Croatia and 70% in Romania have an English-language website.
Information on Management: 88% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online; 64.5% provide additional information on management. Disclosure in the former category decreased slightly (2%) since the last survey whereas the latter represents a record high since the first survey was conducted and a slight increase vis-à-vis February 2008 (63%) and August 2007 (59%).
Information on Board Members: 91% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online and 61% provide additional information on board members. Each category increased to a higher new record since the first survey was conducted and to new thresholds above 90% and 60% respectively. Disclosure in the latter category represents a significant increase from 52% in February 2008, 51% in August 2007, 40% in February 2007, 36% in August 2006 and 41% in February 2006.
Best Practice: Since 2004, the survey includes recommendations on the ideal corporate website and compares CEE companies with the parameters of this ideal. This component of the survey identifies best practice and enables CEE companies to benchmark their disclosure against peers in the region, other emerging markets and industry best practice. Here also, the time-series data identifies online disclosure trends.
On August 15, 2008 56 of the 110 companies surveyed in CEE (51%) disclose information in all of the categories analyzed in the basic PFS Program survey: local-language website; English-language website; list of management; list of board members; additional information on management; and additional information on board members. This is the first survey in which over 50% of the companies surveyed provide all of the basic information analyzed. On February 15, 2008 51 of the 110 companies surveyed in CEE (46%) disclosed information in all of the basic categories analyzed in the survey. On August 15, 2007 47 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (43%) disclosed information in all of the basic categories analyzed in the survey. Therefore, over the past year a slight improvement has been documented in each edition of the survey.
Comparisons with BRIC and Ukraine: The largest listed companies in BRIC equal or outperform their CEE peers in every category. However, the gap continues to narrow. Furthermore, when companies in BRIC are compared with peers in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004, the difference between the peer groups is much smaller. The Ukrainian companies surveyed disclose less information than their peers in both BRIC and CEE; however, improvements are discernible over time. Detailed comparisons include the following:
- Each of the companies surveyed in BRIC has a local language website. In ten of the 11 CEE countries surveyed, each of the companies surveyed has a local language website. In Czech Republic, eight of the ten companies surveyed have a local language website. In Ukraine, nine of the ten companies surveyed have a local language website.
- In BRIC, all of the companies surveyed have an English website, compared with 95.5% in CEE-11, 100% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 70% in Ukraine.
- 97.5% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide a list of management online, compared with 88% in the CEE-11 and 91% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004. In Ukraine 40% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online.
- 87.5% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide additional information on management online, compared with 64.5% in the CEE-11, 70% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 50% in Ukraine.
- All of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide a list of board members online, compared with 91% in the CEE-11, 97.5% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 30% in Ukraine.
- 95% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide additional information on board members online, compared with 61% in CEE-11, 70% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 10% in Ukraine.
The survey contains information compiled in the following groups and sub-groups:
- Current data on 110 companies in eleven CEE countries;
- Separate data on 80 companies in eight CEE countries that joined the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004;
- Separate data on 30 companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania;
- Comparisons of the data from this current survey with data from the previous 14 conducted every August and February since August 2001; and
- Separate data on 40 companies in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as 10 companies in Ukraine.
To download the survey, a presentation of survey results and the company database, please click on the links below:
Thursday, May 8, 2008
PFS Program’s tenth Regional Survey – Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its tenth semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. This edition of the survey was co-financed by DWS Investments (Deutsche Bank Group). PFS Program Intern Dominik Grodzki (Poland), PFS Program Assistant Magdalena Grabowska and PFS Program Research Assistant Igor Solodovnik conducted the survey from March 1 through April 30, 2008.
Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the tenth time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the ninth time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the eighth time. Moreover, a fourth analysis of peer companies (the ten largest listed companies by market capitalization) in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as Ukraine allows for ongoing benchmarking with these emerging market peers.
PFS Program surveys analyze the annual reports and websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned 11 CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the semi-annual surveys of reporting on CSR represent a snapshot of this peer group’s CSR disclosure practices on a given day twice a year. Furthermore, by analyzing disclosures in both annual reports and websites, the surveys track the timing of the publication of the annual report and the related yet separate issue of periodic disclosure, namely, how blue-chip companies keep their websites data-rich and up-to-date. The surveys enable companies to benchmark their disclosure practices against peers on a national, industry and regional basis.
This survey analyzes companies’ disclosures in English (in the English-language annual report and on the English-language company website) during the time period March – April 2008 on the following three topics: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. The record date for the disclosures is April 15, 2008.
This edition of the survey documents a generally higher level of online disclosure of corporate governance information, continuing the trend over the past five years. Slightly more information is also disclosed in the area of social policy, compared with the previous survey published in September 2007. Disclosure of information about environmental policy has increased on company websites; however, significant progress remains to be made in disclosing information on environmental policy in the annual report.
Overall, companies in BRIC outperform CEE peers in terms of the availability of English-language websites and annual reports as well as specific disclosures in all three areas. In the field of corporate governance, the most significant difference concerns disclosure of information regarding compliance with a corporate governance code and a company-specific code of business conduct/code of ethics in both the website and annual report. In general, BRIC companies also provide more information on social policy and environmental policy. Due to the lack of a number of drivers, Ukrainian companies lag behind both BRIC and CEE peers in all areas. However, the number of Ukrainian companies with English-language websites has increased steadily over the past two years.
29 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (26%) provide a stand-alone environmental, social and governance (ESG) report online in English on the record date of April 15, 2008. This represents a significant improvement over the most recent survey and continuation of an ongoing trend: 22 of the companies surveyed (20%) published such a report in September 2007, compared with 19 companies (17%) in April 2007 and 17 companies (15%) in September 2006. A list of companies that publish a stand-alone environmental, social and governance (ESG) report online in English may be found as a separate document below.
Survey findings include the following:
• 96% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website on the record date of April 15, 2008, compared with 94.5 % in September 2007, 94% in April 2007, 94% in September 2006, 87% in April 2006, 89% in September 2005 and 82% in April 2005. In comparison, 100% of the BRIC companies surveyed and 70% of the Ukrainian companies surveyed have an English-language website.
• 87% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have a 2006/2007 English-language annual report online on the record date of April 15, 2008 compared with 100% in BRIC and 30% in Ukraine.
• Nine Slovene, eight Polish, eight Hungarian, seven Estonian, four Bulgarian, four Czech, four Latvian companies, one Croatian, one Lithuanian and one Romanian company disclose information regarding compliance with a corporate governance code on the company website. Nine Slovene, eight Estonian, seven Polish, six Czech, six Lithuanian, four Croatian, four Hungarian, three Bulgarian, three Slovak, two Romanian and one Latvian company disclose this information in the annual report.
• 64% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed disclose information on employee development/benefits on their website. This result has remained constant at 64% for the past four surveys.
• 24% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed disclose information on energy and water use on their website, compared with 17% in September 2007, 17% in April 2007, 21% in September 2006, 18% in April 2006, 20% in September 2005, 20% in April 2005 and 23% in August 2004.
• 29 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (26%) publish a stand-alone English-language ESG report as of April 15, 2008. Of the 29 reports published in CEE, 27 (93%) use recognized standards and eight (28%) include a third-party assurance statement.
• 17 of the 40 BRIC companies surveyed (42.5%) publish a stand-alone English-language ESG report. Of the 17 reports published in BRIC, 14 (82%) use recognized standards and ten (59%) provide a third-party assurance. No Ukrainian company produces such a report as of the record date of April 15, 2008.
Note: The survey consists of the three following documents: a report of the survey findings presenting data aggregated by country; a database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in each of the 11 CEE countries; and a separate database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in BRIC and Ukraine. This edition of the survey includes a newly-designed and more user-friendly database which lists the companies surveyd in the first spreadsheet, entitled, „Table of Contents (LOC).”
To download the survey, the database and a separate list of companies that publish an English-language stand-alone ESG report, please click on the links below:
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
PFS Program’s 14th Regional Survey - Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the PFS Program publishes its 14th semi-annual Survey of Online Investor Relations of the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. PFS Program Assistant Magdalena Grabowska and PFS Program Intern Lukasz Gilewicz conducted the survey from February 1 through February 29, 2008.
In this edition of the survey, disclosure in almost all categories remains at or reaches its highest level since the first survey was conducted in August 2001. This trend has been observed since February 2006 and may be viewed as sustainable. This edition of the survey documents an ongoing increase in disclosure of detailed governance information.
90% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online, compared with 86% in August 2007. This is the largest percentage recorded since the surveys began in 2001. 63% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about management online, compared with 59% in August 2007 and 53% in February 2007. This is also the largest percentage recorded since the surveys began in 2001.
87% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online and 52% provide additional information on board members. The former category increased to a new record since the first survey was conducted, from 82% in August 2007. Disclosure in the latter category also reached a new record, posting a slight increase from 51% in August 2007 and a significant increase over 40% in February 2007.
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in CEE analyzes the websites of the ten largest listed companies in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. For the fourth time, the survey also analyzes companies in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as well as Ukraine in order to compare the online disclosure practices of CEE listed companies with peers in other emerging markets.
The survey analyzes the English-language websites and annual reports of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this ‘blue-chip’ peer group. Although the market capitalization of companies changes over time, the semi-annual surveys represent a snapshot of disclosure practices of the blue-chip peer group on a given day twice a year. Since the definition of the survey universe has remained the same since the first survey, the surveys provide time-series data for CEE blue-chip companies and thus enable the identification of online disclosure trends as well as best practice within the peer group.
The survey provides current data as of February 15, 2008 and comparisons with the 13 previous surveys, conducted in August 2007, February 2007, August 2006, February 2006, August 2005, February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001.
Since 2004, the survey includes recommendations on the ideal corporate website and compares CEE companies with the parameters of this ideal. This component of the survey identifies best practice and enables CEE companies to benchmark their disclosure against peers in the region, other emerging markets and industry best practice. Here also, the time-series data identifies online disclosure trends.
Survey results include the following:
Websites: In nine of the 11 CEE countries surveyed, each of the ten largest listed companies has a local-language website on February 15, 2008. In Bulgaria and Lithuania, nine of the ten companies surveyed have a local-language website. In the previous survey, 109 companies surveyed had a local-language website. One of the ten Bulgarian companies surveyed did not have a local-language website.
94.5% of the companies surveyed have an English-language website; the percentage increased from 93% in August 2007.
Information on Management: 90% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online; 63% provide additional information on management. As noted above, in each category the results represent a new record high since the first survey was conducted in 2001.
Information on Board Members: 87% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online and 52% provide additional information on board members. The former category increased to a new record since the first survey was conducted, from 82% in August 2007. Disclosure in the latter category also reached a new record, posting a slight increase from 51% in August 2007 and a significant increase over 40% in February 2007.
Comparisons with BRIC and Ukraine: The largest listed companies in BRIC equal or outperform their CEE peers in every category. However, the gap continues to narrow. Furthermore, when companies in BRIC are compared with peers in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004, the difference between the peer groups is much smaller. The Ukrainian companies surveyed disclose less information than their peers in both BRIC and CEE. However, the disclosures made by the Ukrainian companies improved vis-à-vis the previous survey. Detailed comparisons include the following:
- Each of the companies surveyed in BRIC has a local language website. In nine of the 11 CEE countries surveyed, each of the companies surveyed has a local language website. In Bulgaria and Lithuania, nine of the ten companies surveyed have a local language website. In Ukraine, nine of the ten companies surveyed have a local language website.
- 100% of the companies surveyed in BRIC have an English website, compared with 94.5% in CEE-11, 99% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 70% in Ukraine.
- 100% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide a list of management online, compared with 90% in the CEE-11 and 94% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004. In Ukraine 30% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online.
- 87.5% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide additional information on management online, compared with 63% in the CEE-11, 71% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 20% in Ukraine.
- 100% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide a list of board members online, compared with 87% in the CEE-11, 91% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 20% in Ukraine.
- 87.5% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide additional information on board members online, compared with 52% in CEE-11, 64% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 10% in Ukraine.
The survey contains information compiled in the following groups and sub-groups:
- Current data on 110 companies in eleven CEE countries;
- Separate data on 80 companies in eight CEE countries that joined the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004;
- Separate data on 30 companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania;
- Comparisons of the data from this current survey with data from the previous 13 surveys conducted every August and February since August 2001; and
- Separate data on 50 companies in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as Ukraine.
To download the survey, a presentation of survey results and the company database, please click on the links below:
Thursday, December 6, 2007
OMX Nordic Exchange announces winners of The Baltic Market Awards
Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; and Vilnius, Lithuania
On Thursday, December 6, 2007 OMX Nordic Exchange announced the winners of The Baltic Market Awards 2007, recognizing the best practices in investor relations in Baltic securities market. TEO LT from Lithuania was awarded for the Best Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries, while Hansapank from Estonia won the title of Member of the Year.
“Mainstream and targeted investors increasingly make portfolio allocation decisions on the basis of a wide range of financial and non-financial criteria. Therefore, investor relations is crucial, particularly in emerging markets. Good investor relations keeps investors and stakeholders continually informed about a company’s position; ultimately, investor relations can serve as a magnet to attract investors. The Baltic Market Awards recognize excellence in investor relations according to best practice and international standards in financial and non-financial reporting,” according to Geoffrey Mazullo, Chairman of the Baltic Market Awards Evaluation Committee and Director of the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program, East-West Management Institute.
The winners of other categories were:
• Eesti Telekom: The Best Investor Relations in Tallinn
• TEO LT: The Best Investor Relations in Vilnius
• SAF Tehnika: The Best Investor Relations in Riga and The Best Investor Relations among Small Cap Companies
• Olainfarm: The Best Investor Relations Online.
This year awards were also given in two new categories:
• Sanitas won the award for The Best Annual Report
• Silvano Fashion Group won award for The Most Visible Improvement over the Year in investor relations.
In 2007, listed companies on the Nordic Exchange’s Baltic Market improved their performance considerably; the overall results in 2007 improved by almost 20% vis-à-vis 2006. The evaluation committee of The Baltic Market Awards this year analyzed 69 companies. In some categories, the competition was extremely strong.
The most visible improvements this year are seen in annual reports, periodic reports and in companies’ corporate web pages. The progress can be attributed largely to The Baltic Market Awards project, through which companies that want to improve their investor relations receive technical know-how through individual meetings with specialists from the Nordic Exchange’s Baltic Market.
The Baltic Market Awards was introduced by the Nordic Exchange in 2006 to identify and encourage the best Baltic market participants, and to improve the overall standard of investor relations among listed companies.
Both issuers and members are evaluated against specifically defined evaluation criteria; the results are unbiased. The member evaluation was based on quantitative criteria related to their activity on the market – turnover in equity, turnover in fixed income, number of deals, etc.
Issuers were evaluated using only publicly available information in English; the evaluation comprises five criteria groups: annual report, interim reports, ongoing corporate disclosures, company website and investor evaluation.
The members of the Evaluation Committee represent academics, investors, an NGO and the Stock Exchanges. The company analysis was conducted by students from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, under the supervision of the evaluation committee and the Stock Exchanges.
Thursday, October 11, 2007 - Sunday, October 14, 2007
DissMark II Conference
Tallinn, Estonia
From Thursday, October 11 though Sunday, October 14, 2007 the DissMark II Dissemination, Marketing and Networking Conference & Project Fair took place in Tallinn, Estonia. The event was hosted by project coordinator International House Tallinn, on behalf of the DissMark II Project Team.
Participants included: project coordinators and partners from different activities affiliated with the Socrates initiative (including Comenius, Erasmus, Grundtvig, Lingua and Minerva) involved in educational projects with a linguistic component; several project coordinators from other programs co-financed by the European Commission (including The Leonardo da Vinci program); experts in marketing educational products; educational policymakers; institutions responsible for promoting the European Language Label; representatives from the European Commission Directorate General for Education & Culture; and representatives of the Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency.
Geoffrey Mazullo, Director, PFS Program, delivered a presentation on networking, describing the networking experience of the PFS Program. The presentation included actual data about the PFS Program’s operations, including: the number of PFS Program activities; the number of participants in PFS Program activities; the number of PFS Program counterparts; the number of links on the PFS Program links page; the number of PFS counterparts included in the contact database; the number of recipients of PFS Program press releases; media coverage of PFS Program activities; website traffic; etc. The presentation included specific examples of how the PFS Program networks in order to fulfill its mandate of promoting regional financial sector integration and financial sector development. It described creative and effective use of the PFS Program website as a networking mechanism.
The Conference provided a venue for: delivery of structured theoretical and practical training in the field of marketing and dissemination; sharing examples of marketing and dissemination of project outcomes and best practices resulting from the projects; and networking. The new Lifelong Learning Program had started in January 2007; therefore the Conference was an excellent opportunity for the exchange of information and an update for participants in terms of the European Commission’s priorities for the period of 2007-2013. Concurrently, the event was an awareness raiser for policy makers on the importance of developing and implementing educational projects as well as the existence of various products resulting from these projects. Beyond the participating institutions, the wider educational community also benefits from this initiative; as a result of improved dissemination and marketing strategies, more information about educational projects will be made available.
For more information about the conference, please visit the conference website: Dismark II Conference Survival Kit.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
PFS Program’s ninth Regional Survey – Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its ninth semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. This edition of the survey was co-financed by DWS Investments (Deutsche Bank Group). PFS Program Interns Martin Masse (Canada), Ivan Sentevski (Serbia) and Emilia Swiatczak (Poland) as well as PFS Program Assistant Magdalena Grabowska conducted the survey from August through October 2007. Additional co-financing for the Canadian intern was provided by MBAs Without Borders, whose mission is to contribute to the business and social development of transition economies through work rotations of MBA professionals.
Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the ninth time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the eighth time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the seventh time. Moreover, a third-time analysis of peer companies (the ten largest listed companies by market capitalization) in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as Ukraine allows for benchmarking with these emerging market peers for the third time.
PFS Program surveys analyze the annual reports and websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned 11 CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the semi-annual surveys of reporting on CSR represent a snapshot of this peer group’s CSR disclosure practices on a given day twice a year. Furthermore, by analyzing disclosures in both annual reports and websites, the surveys track the timing of the publication of the annual report and the related yet separate issue of periodic disclosure, namely, how blue-chip companies keep their websites data-rich and up-to-date. The surveys enable companies to benchmark their disclosure practices against peers on a national, industry and regional basis.
This survey analyzes companies’ disclosures in English (in the English-language annual report and on the English-language company website) during the time period August - September 2007 on the following three topics: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. The record date for the disclosures is September 15, 2007.
This edition of the survey documents a generally higher level of online disclosure of corporate governance information, continuing the trend over the past four years. Slightly more information is also disclosed in the area of social policy, compared with the previous survey published in May 2007. Significant progress remains to be made in disclosing information on environmental policy.
Overall, companies in BRIC outperform CEE peers in terms of the availability of English-language websites and annual reports as well as specific disclosures in all three areas. With regards to corporate governance, the most significant difference concerns compliance with a corporate governance code and disclosure of a code of business conduct/code of ethics in both the website and annual report. In general, BRIC companies also provide more information on social policy and environmental policy. Due to the lack of a number of drivers, Ukrainian companies lag behind both BRIC and CEE peers in all areas
22 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (20%) provide a stand-alone environmental, social and governance (ESG) report online in English on the record date of September 15, 2007. This demonstrates continuation of an ongoing trend: 19 of the 110 companies surveyed (17%) published such a report in April 2007, compared with 17 companies (15%) in September 2006.
Survey findings include the following:
• 94.5% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website on the record date of September 15, 2007, compared with 94% in April 2007, 94% in September 2006, 87% in April 2006, 89% in September 2005 and 82% in April 2005. In comparison, 97.5% of the BRIC companies surveyed and 60% of the Ukrainian companies surveyed have an English-language website.
• 82% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have a 2006 English-language annual report online on the same record date of September 15, 2007 compared with 90% in BRIC and 20% in Ukraine.
• Nine Polish, eight Slovene, six Hungarian, five Estonian, four Czech and four Latvian companies disclose information regarding compliance with a corporate governance code on the company website. Eight Polish, eight Slovene, seven Lithuanian, six Estonian, five Czech and four Hungarian companies disclose this information in the annual report.
• 33% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed disclose information on environmental performance on their website, compared with 20% in April 2007, 28% in September 2006, 19% in April 2006, 29% in September 2005, 26% in April 2005 and 24% in August 2004.
• 53% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed disclose information on sponsorships on their website, compared with 44% in April 2007, 44% in September 2006, 37% in April 2006, 47% in September 2005, 37% in April 2005 and 33% in August 2004.
• 22 of the 110 CEE companies surveyed (20%) publish a stand-alone English-language ESG report as of September 15, 2007. Of the 22 reports published in CEE, 20 (91%) use recognized standards and seven (32%) provide a third-party assurance statement.
• 15 of the 40 BRIC companies surveyed (38%) publish a stand-alone English-language ESG report. Of the 15 reports published in BRIC, 14 (93%) use recognized standards and nine (60) % provide a third-party assurance. No Ukrainian company produces such a report as of the record date of September 15, 2007.
Note: The survey consists of the three following documents: a report of the survey findings presenting data aggregated by country; a database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in each of the 11 CEE countries; and a separate database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in BRIC and Ukraine.
To download the survey and the two company databases, please click on the links below:
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
PFS Program’s 13th Regional Survey - Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the PFS Program publishes its 13th semi-annual Survey of Online Investor Relations of the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. PFS Program Assistant Magdalena Grabowska and PFS Program Intern Dagmara Lubczynska conducted the survey from July 2 through September 3, 2007.
In this edition of the survey, disclosure in almost all categories remains at or reaches its highest level since the first survey was conducted in August 2001. This trend has been observed since February 2006 and may be viewed as sustainable. In particular, this edition of the survey documents a dramatic increase in disclosure of detailed governance information. 59% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about management online, compared with 53% in February 2007 and 45% in August 2006. This is the largest percentage recorded since the surveys began in 2001. Furthermore, 51% of the companies surveyed provide additional information about board members online. This is also the largest percentage recorded since the first survey and represents a significant increase over previous surveys: 40% in February 2007 and 37% in August 2006.
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in CEE analyzes the websites of the ten largest listed companies in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. For the third time, the survey also analyzes companies in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as well as Ukraine in order to compare the online disclosure practices of CEE listed companies with peers in other emerging markets.
The survey analyzes the English-language websites and annual reports of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this ‘blue-chip’ peer group. Although the market capitalization of companies changes over time, the semi-annual surveys represent a snapshot of disclosure practices of the blue-chip peer group on a given day twice a year. Since the definition of the survey universe has remained the same since the first survey, the surveys provide time-series data for CEE blue-chip companies and thus enable the identification of online disclosure trends as well as best practice within the peer group.
The survey provides current data as of August 15, 2007 and comparisons with the 12 previous surveys, conducted in February 2007, August 2006, February 2006, August 2005, February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001.
Since 2004, the survey includes recommendations on the ideal corporate website and compares CEE companies with the parameters of this ideal. This component of the survey identifies best practice and enables CEE companies to benchmark their disclosure against peers in the region, other emerging markets and industry best practice. Here also, the time-series data identifies online disclosure trends.
Survey results include the following:
Websites: In ten of the 11 CEE countries surveyed, each of the ten largest listed companies has a local-language website on August 15, 2007. In Bulgaria, nine of the ten companies surveyed have a local-language website. In the previous two surveys, each of the 110 CEE companies surveyed had a local-language website on the record date. 93% of the companies surveyed have an English-language website; the percentage has remained constant for the past 18 months.
Information on Management: 86% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online; 59% provide additional information on management. Disclosure in the former category increased slightly (4%) since the last survey whereas the latter represents a record high since the first survey was conducted and a significant increase vis-à-vis February 2007 (53%) and August 2006 (45%).
Information on Board Members: 82% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online and 51% provide additional information on board members. The former category increased to a slightly higher new record since the first survey was conducted, from 81% in February 2007. Disclosure in the latter category also represents a new record high and a significant increase from 40% in February 2007, 36% in August 2006 and 41% in February 2006.
Comparisons with BRIC and Ukraine: The largest listed companies in BRIC equal or outperform their CEE peers in every category. However, the gap continues to narrow. Furthermore, when companies in BRIC are compared with peers in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004, the difference between the peer groups is much smaller. The Ukrainian companies surveyed disclose less information than their peers in both BRIC and CEE. Detailed comparisons include the following:
- Each of the companies surveyed in BRIC has a local language website. In ten of the 11 CEE countries surveyed, each of the companies surveyed has a local language website. In Bulgaria, nine of the ten companies surveyed have a local language website. In Ukraine, seven of the ten companies surveyed have a local language website.
- 98% of the companies surveyed in BRIC have an English website, compared with 93% in CEE-11, 99% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 60% in Ukraine.
- 95% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide a list of management online, compared with 86% in the CEE-11 and 92% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004. In Ukraine 40% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online.
- 90% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide additional information on management online, compared with 59% in the CEE-11, 71% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 30% in Ukraine.
- 95% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide a list of board members online, compared with 82% in the CEE-11, 87% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 30% in Ukraine.
- 93% of the companies surveyed in BRIC provide additional information on board members online, compared with 51% in CEE-11, 64% in the eight CEE countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 20% in Ukraine.
The survey contains information compiled in the following groups and sub-groups:
- Current data on 110 companies in eleven CEE countries;
- Separate data on 80 companies in eight CEE countries that joined the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004;
- Separate data on 30 companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania;
- Comparisons of the data from this current survey with data from the previous 12 conducted every August and February since August 2001; and
- Separate data on 50 companies in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as Ukraine.
To download the survey, a presentation of survey results and the company database, please click on the links below:
Monday, May 7, 2007
PFS Program’s eighth Regional Survey – Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its eighth semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. This edition of the survey was co-financed by DWS Investments (Deutsche Bank Group). PFS Program Interns Magdalena Grabowska and Wojciech Stec as well as PFS Program Research Assistant Igor Solodovnik conducted the survey from March through May 2007.
Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the eighth time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the seventh time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the sixth time. Moreover, a second-time analysis of peer companies (the ten largest listed companies by market capitalization) in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as Ukraine allows for benchmarking with these emerging market peers for the second time.
PFS Program surveys analyze the annual reports and websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned 11 CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the semi-annual surveys of reporting on CSR represent a snapshot of this peer group’s CSR disclosure practices on a given day twice a year. Furthermore, by analyzing disclosures in both annual reports and websites, the surveys track the timing of the publication of the annual report and the related yet separate issue of periodic disclosure, namely, how blue-chip companies keep their websites data-rich and up-to-date. The surveys enable companies to benchmark their disclosure practices against peers on a national, industry and regional basis.
This survey analyzes companies’ disclosures in English (in the English-language annual report and on the English-language company website) during the time period March – April 2007 on the following three topics: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. The record date for the disclosures is April 15, 2007.
In Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland all 10 of the companies surveyed in each country have an English-language website. 94% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website. 85% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have either a 2004, 2005 or 2006 English-language annual report online by April 15, 2007. (Comparison of disclosures in annual reports is not as relevant in the spring edition of this semi-annual survey, since as of April 15 many companies have not yet published their 2005 annual report online.) In general, companies in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia disclose the most information online.
This eighth semi-annual regional survey demonstrates a generally similar level of disclosure on company websites to that observed during the past four years across all three information categories analyzed: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. In general, companies provide more information on corporate governance than on environmental or social policy. Also, corporate governance codes continue to significantly impact reporting on corporate governance issues in certain countries. Several companies now issue separate/stand-alone reports on environmental, social and/or governance (ESG) issues. Of the 110 CEE companies surveyed, 19 (17%) have an English-language ESG report available online on April 15, 2007. This represents a significant increase (21%) since September 2006, when only 15% of the companies surveyed published such a report. In comparison, five Chinese, four Russian, four Brazilian and two Indian companies have English-language ESG reports available online.
Survey findings include the following:
• 94% of the CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website on the record date of April 15, 2007 compared with 94% in September 2006, 87% in April 2006, 89% in September 2005 and 81% in April 2005. In contrast, 100% of the surveyed companies in BRIC and 60% of the Ukrainian companies surveyed have an English-language website.
• Nine Polish, seven Czech and seven Slovene companies disclose implementation of a corporate governance code in their annual report.
• 69% of the CEE companies surveyed disclose information on their governance structure in the company's annual report, compared with 75% in September 2006, 62% in April 2006 and 68% in September 2005. 88% of the BRIC companies surveyed and 20% of the Ukrainian companies surveyed provide this information.
• 65% of the CEE companies surveyed disclose employee benefits or development policies in the (2004, 2005 or 2006) annual report currently available online, compared with 64% in September 2006, 42% in April 2006, 48% in September 2005, 37% in April 2005 and 42% in August 2004.
• 49% of the CEE companies surveyed disclose information on compliance with environmental standards on their website, compared with 45% in September 2006, 37% in April 2006, 48% in September 2005, 41% in April 2005 and 37% in August 2004.
• 26% of the CEE companies surveyed report on supply chain management on their website; this is the highest percentage recorded since the first survey conducted in summer 2003. In September 2006, only 10% of the companies surveyed provided this information online.
Note: The survey consists of the three following documents: a report of the survey findings presenting data aggregated by country; a database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in each of the 11 CEE countries; and a separate database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in BRIC and Ukraine.
To download the survey and the two company databases, please click on the links below:
Monday, March 5, 2007
PFS Program’s 12th Regional Survey - Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the PFS Program publishes its 12th semi-annual Survey of Online Investor Relations of the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. PFS Program Manager Agnieszka Cenzartowicz, PFS Program Research Assistant Igor Solodovnik and Catherine Sykes, East-West Management Institute (EWMI) New York conducted the survey from January 2 through March 2, 2007.
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in CEE analyzes the websites of the ten largest listed companies in Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. For the second time, the survey provides comparisons with BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and Ukraine in order to compare online disclosure practices with peers in other emerging markets.
This survey analyzes the English-language websites and annual reports of the 10 largest listed companies in the aforementioned CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this ‘blue-chip’ peer group. Although the market capitalization of companies changes over time, these semi-annual surveys represent a snapshot of disclosure practices of the blue-chip peer group on a given day twice a year. Since the definition of the survey universe has remained the same since the first survey, the surveys provide time-series data for CEE blue-chip companies and thus enable the identification of online disclosure trends.
The survey provides current data as of February 15, 2007 and comparisons with the 11 previous surveys, published in August 2006, February 2006, August 2005, February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001.
In this survey, disclosure in almost all categories remained at or reached its highest level since the first survey was conducted in August 2001. This trend has been observed since February 2006 and may be viewed as sustainable. As of February 15, 2007 all companies surveyed in all 11 countries have a local language website. A large majority have an English-language website: including all 10 companies in surveyed in Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. However, while basic information about management and boards is now generally available online, detailed information is still lacking in many markets.
Beginning in 2004, the survey includes recommendations on the ideal corporate website and compares CEE companies to this ideal. This component of the survey is designed to help identify best practice and enables CEE companies to benchmark their disclosure against peers in the region against other emerging markets and against industry best practice according to standardized parameters. Here also, the time-series data permits identification of trends.
Survey results include the following:
• Websites: Each of the 110 CEE companies surveyed has a local-language website. This is the third consecutive time since the first survey was conducted in August 2001 that each CEE company surveyed has a local-language website. 94% of the companies surveyed have an English-language website; the percentage has remained constant for the past 18 months.
• Information on Management: 82% of the companies surveyed provide a list of management online; 53% provide additional information on management. The former category decreased slightly (5%) whereas the later increased significantly (15%) vis-à-vis August 2006.
• Information on Board Members: 81% of the companies surveyed provide a list of board members online, whereas 40% provide additional information on their board members. The former category remained at the highest level reported since the first survey and the latter increased 7.5% to a level comparable to the highest level reported (41% in February 2006).
• Comparisons with BRIC and Ukraine: On average, the largest listed companies in the BRIC countries equal or outperform their CEE peers in every category. However, in several categories the difference is minimal. In Ukraine, in contrast, the companies surveyed disclose less information in English than their peers in both BRIC and CEE.
The PFS Program surveys analyze the websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned eleven CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the ongoing surveys represent a snapshot of this peer group’s disclosure practices on a given day twice a year and thereby provide insights into blue-chip companies’ corporate governance and investor relations practices. The surveys enable companies to benchmark their disclosure practices against peers on a national, industry and regional basis.
Comparative survey findings include the following:
• Each of the 40 companies surveyed in BRIC and each of the 110 CEE companies has a local-language website. In Ukraine, seven out of ten companies have a local-language website.
• 100% of the 40 companies surveyed in BRIC, 94% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed and 50% of the companies surveyed in Ukraine have an English-language website.
• 95% of the 40 companies surveyed in BRIC, 82% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed and 40% of the companies surveyed in Ukraine provide a list of management online.
• 78% of the 40 companies surveyed in BRIC, 53% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed and 30% of the companies surveyed in Ukraine provide additional information on management online.
• 92% of the 40 companies surveyed in BRIC, 81% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed and 20% of the companies surveyed in Ukraine provide a list of board members online.
• 70% of the 40 companies surveyed in BRIC, 40% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed and 20% of the companies surveyed in Ukraine provide additional information on board members online.
This survey presents data aggregated in the following groupings to enable different types of comparison:
• Combined data on the 10 largest-listed companies in each of the 11 CEE countries;
• Separate data on the eight new member states of the EU admitted on May 1, 2004;
• Separate data on Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania;
• Comparisons of the data from the current survey with data from the previous 11 surveys conducted since August 2001; and
• Separate data on Brazil, Russia India, China (BRIC) and Ukraine.
To download the survey, a presentation of survey results and the two company databases, please click on the links below:
Thursday, December 7, 2006
The Baltic Market Awards Ceremony
Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; and Vilnius, Lithuania
On Thursday, December 7, 2006 OMX’s exchanges in Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius held a joint ceremony to present the winners of The Baltic Market Awards, the mission of which is to identify the best Baltic market participants as well as to increase listed companies’ awareness of the significance of disclosure quality, good investor relations and best practice in corporate governance.
The awards were unveiled at a special prize-giving ceremony with a video link-up among the Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius stock exchanges, enabling all audiences to simultaneously see the event and congratulate the winners.
The main award presented was for the Best Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries. Other awards were presented for:
• Member of the Year;
• The Best Investor Relations Among Small Cap (market capitalization under EUR 50 million);
• The Best Company (of each exchange – Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius); and
• The Best Investor Relations Webpage.
Beginning in 2007 an award will be presented annually to the company demonstrating the Most Visible Improvement Over The Year.
Johan Rudén, President of the Baltic Market business unit at OMX, noted: “The companies involved in the project benefit from increased awareness of the importance of disclosure quality, good investor relations and corporate governance practices. Each company was presented an analysis of its performance measured against the evaluation criteria and the best in the category, and now can work towards the necessary enhancements.”
The Baltic Market Awards Evaluation Committee is responsible for development of the criteria and for approval of the results. The members of the Committee represent academia, investors, media and the stock exchanges. The Committee is chaired by Geoffrey Mazullo, Director, PFS Program, an independent representative. On Thursday, December 7, 2006 Mr. Mazullo attended the awards ceremony in Tallinn, Estonia.
Please visit the websites of the Riga Stock Exchange, Tallinn Stock Exchange and Vilnius Stock Exchange for detailed information, including a list of the winners and photos from the inaugural Baltic Markets Awards ceremony.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries; First-Time Comparison with Peers in BRIC and Ukraine
Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its seventh semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. This edition of the survey was co-financed by DWS Investments (Deutsche Bank Group). DWS Investments provided funding for PFS Program interns Dana Krechowicz (Canada) and Plamena Spassova (Bulgaria), who conducted the survey together with PFS Program Research Assistant Michal Slawinski from August 14 through September 30, 2006. Additional co-financing for the Canadian intern was provided by MBAs Without Borders.
Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the seventh time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the sixth time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the fifth time. Moreover, an inaugural analysis of peer companies (the ten largest listed companies by market capitalization) in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) as well as Ukraine allows for benchmarking with these emerging market peers for the first time.
PFS Program surveys analyze the annual reports and websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned 11 CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the semi-annual surveys of reporting on CSR represent a snapshot of this peer group’s CSR disclosure practices on a given day twice a year. Furthermore, by analyzing disclosures in both annual reports and websites, the surveys track the timing of the publication of the annual report and the related yet separate issue of periodic disclosure, namely, how blue-chip companies keep their websites data-rich and up-to-date. The surveys enable companies to benchmark their disclosure practices against peers on a national, industry and regional basis.
This survey analyzes companies’ disclosures in English (in the English-language annual report and on the English-language company website) during the time period August – September 2006 on the following three topics: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. The record date for the disclosures is September 15, 2006.
In Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia all 10 of the companies surveyed in each country have an English-language website. 94% of the 110 CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website. 71% of the 100 CEE companies surveyed had released their 2005 annual report online by September 15, 2006. In general, companies in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia disclose the most information online.
This seventh semi-annual regional survey demonstrates a generally similar level of disclosure on company websites to that observed during the past three years across all three information categories analyzed: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. In general, companies provide more information on corporate governance than on environmental or social policy. Also, corporate governance codes continue to significantly impact reporting on corporate governance issues in certain countries. Several companies now issue separate/stand-alone reports on environmental, social and/or governance (ESG) issues. Of the 110 CEE companies surveyed, 14 (13%) have English-language ESG reports available online on September 15, 2006. Five companies (4.5%) produce the report in accordance with recognized standards, such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Five Brazilian companies, four Russian companies, two Indian companies and two Chinese companies have English-language ESG reports available online. In comparison, a July 2006 research survey conducted by Social Investment Research Analysts Network noted that 34 S&P 100 companies (34%) produce an ESG report in compliance with GRI guidelines.
Survey findings include the following:
• 94% of the CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website on the record date of September 15, 2006 compared with 87% in April 2006, 89% in September 2005 and 81% in April 2005. In contrast, 100% of the surveyed companies in BRIC and 50% of the Ukrainian companies surveyed have an English-language website.
• 71% of the CEE companies surveyed have an English-language 2005 annual report available online on the record date of September 15, 2006 compared with 78% on September 15, 2005 and 65% on August 15, 2004.
• Nine Slovene, eight Polish, six Czech and six Hungarian companies disclose implementation of a corporate governance code in their annual report.
• 75% of the CEE companies surveyed disclose information on their governance structure in the company's annual report, compared with 62% in April 2006 and 68% in September 2005. 45% of the BRIC companies surveyed and 20% of the Ukrainian companies surveyed provide this information.
• 64% of the CEE companies surveyed disclose employee benefits or development policies in the (2003, 2004 or 2005) annual report currently available online, compared with 42% in April 2006, 48% in September 2005, 37% in April 2005 and 42% in August 2004
• 45% of the CEE companies surveyed disclose information on compliance with environmental standards on their website, compared with 37% in April 2006, 48% in September 2005, 41% in April 2005 and 37% in August 2004.
• 25% of the CEE companies surveyed report on environmental performance in their annual report, compared with 48% of the BRIC companies surveyed.
Note: The survey consists of the following documents: a report of the survey findings presenting data aggregated by country; a database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in each of the 11 CEE countries; and a separate database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in BRIC and Ukraine.
To download the survey and the background databases, please click on the links below:
Friday, September 8, 2006
PFS Program’s Eleventh Regional Survey - Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the PFS Program publishes its eleventh semi-annual survey of online investor relations of the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. PFS Program Interns Harald Lang and Sergei Leonov as well as PFS Program Research Assistant Michal Slawinski conducted the survey from June through August 2006.
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in CEE analyzes the websites of the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia for the tenth time and in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania for the fifth time. The survey provides current data as of August 15, 2006 and comparisons with the ten previous surveys, published in February 2006, August 2005, February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001. Moreover, the survey includes for the first time an analysis of the websites of the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as well as Ukraine.
Overall, online disclosure by CEE listed companies increased since the last survey. In all categories surveyed but two, disclosure remained at or reached the highest level recorded since the survey was first conducted in August 2001. This suggests that the high levels of disclosure in most categories are sustainable. Only in two categories were declines observed; however, one of these was insignificant (1%). Improvement remains to be made in online disclosure of additional information about management and board members.
Survey results include the following:
• All of the CEE companies surveyed have a local-language website. This is the second consecutive time since the first survey was conducted in August 2001 that all CEE companies surveyed have a local-language website.
• 93% of the CEE companies surveyed have an English website compared with 94% in February 2006.
• 86% of the CEE companies surveyed provide a list of management online; this is the highest percentage recorded since the first survey. 81% of companies provided this information in February 2006 compared with 78% in August 2005. 45% of companies provide additional information on management online, the same percentage as in February 2006.
• 81% of the CEE companies surveyed provide a list of board members online; this is also the highest percentage recorded since the first survey. 75% of companies provided this information in February 2006 compared with 69% in August 2005. 37% of companies provide additional information on board members online, compared with 41% in February 2006 and 29% in August 2005.
• Not surprisingly, when analyzed separately the eight new Member States of the European Union outperform the eleven CEE countries (eight new EU Member States plus Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania) in all categories surveyed. Nevertheless, online disclosure also improved in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania since the last survey.
The PFS Program surveys analyze the websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned eleven CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the ongoing surveys represent a snapshot of this peer group’s disclosure practices on a given day twice a year and thereby provide insights into blue-chip companies’ corporate governance and investor relations practices. The surveys enable companies to benchmark their disclosure practices against peers on a national, industry and regional basis.
This first-time survey of the largest listed companies in BRIC and Ukraine also allows the CEE companies to benchmark against peers in other emerging markets. On average, the largest listed companies in the BRIC countries equal or outperform their CEE peers in every category, although in several categories the difference is minimal. Comparative survey findings include the following:
• All of the companies surveyed in BRIC and in the eleven CEE countries have a local-language website, whereas in Ukraine nine out of ten companies have a local-language website.
• 100% of the companies surveyed in BRIC, 93% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries and 40% of the companies surveyed in Ukraine have an English-language website.
• 87% of companies surveyed in BRIC, 86% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries and 30% of the companies surveyed in Ukraine provide a list of management online.
• 73% of the companies surveyed in BRIC, 46% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries and 10% of the companies surveyed in Ukraine provide additional information on management online.
• 90% of the companies surveyed in BRIC, 81% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries and 20% of the companies surveyed in Ukraine provide a list of board members online.
• 60% of the companies surveyed in BRIC, 37% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries and 10% of the companies surveyed in Ukraine provide additional information on board members online.
Note: The survey, consisting of databases of results by company and a presentation of the results by country, contains the following information: current data as of August 15, 2006 on companies in all eleven CEE countries; comparisons of the data from August 2006 with data from the ten previous surveys conducted in February 2006, August 2005, February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001; and separate data as of August 15, 2006 on companies in BRIC and Ukraine.
To download the survey and the background databases, please click on the links below:
Friday, May 5, 2006
PFS Program’s Sixth Semi-Annual Regional Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its sixth semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the sixth time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the fifth time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the fourth time.
Moreover, an analysis of CSR disclosures by the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in Portugal and Spain is included in the survey for the first time.
PFS Program interns Pawel Dziedzic, Ewa Haratym, Anita Keringer and Anna Pogorzelska conducted the survey from March 1 through May 4, 2006.
PFS Program surveys analyze the annual reports and websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned 11 CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the semi-annual surveys of reporting on CSR represent a snapshot of this peer group’s CSR disclosure practices on a given day twice a year. Furthermore, by analyzing disclosures in both annual reports and websites, the surveys track the timing of the publication of the annual report and the related yet separate issue of periodic disclosure, namely, how blue-chip companies keep their websites data-rich and up-to-date.
This survey analyzes companies’ disclosures in English (in the English-language annual report and on the English-language company website) during the time period March – April 2005 on the following three topics: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. The record date for the disclosures is April 15, 2006.
In the Czech Republic, Latvia, Poland and Slovenia all 10 of the companies surveyed have an English-language website. In Hungary and Lithuania, nine of the 10 companies have an English-language website. In general, companies in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia disclose the most information online.
This sixth semi-annual survey notes a generally similar level of disclosure on company websites to that observed during the past three years across all three information categories analyzed – corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. In general, companies provide more information on corporate governance than on environmental policy or social policy. Also, corporate governance codes continue to significantly impact reporting on corporate governance issues in certain countries. One trend can be observed. Several companies now issue separate/stand-alone reports on environmental, social and/or governance (ESG) issues. Of the 110 CEE companies surveyed, 15 have English-language ESG reports available on their websites as of April 15, 2006. In contrast, eight Spanish companies and seven Portuguese companies have ESG reports.
Survey findings include the following:
• 87% of the companies surveyed have an English-language website, compared with 89% in September 2005, 83% in April 2005 and 84% in August 2004.
• 69% of the companies surveyed disclose information about their governance structure on their website, compared with 79% in September 2005, 71% in April 2005 and 69% in August 2004).
• Seven Slovene companies disclose implementation of a corporate governance code in the annual report, compared with one in April 2005. Six Czech companies, six Polish companies and five Hungarian companies now disclose implementation of a corporate governance code in the annual report.
• Nine Polish companies, six Hungarian companies, four Czech companies and four Slovene companies report on implementation of a corporate governance code on the company website.
• 28 companies (25%) now disclose compliance with a corporate governance code on their website, compared with 20 companies (18%) in September 2005 and 19 companies (17%) in April 2005.
• 37% of the companies surveyed mention compliance with environmental standards on their website, compared with 48% in September 2005, 41% in April 2005 and 37% in August 2004.
• 37% of the companies surveyed disclose community, patronage and/or sponsorship programs in the (2003, 2004 or 2005) annual reports currently available online, compared with 36% in September 2005, 28% in April 2005 and 30% in August 2004.
• 37% of the companies surveyed disclose community, patronage and/or sponsorship programs on their website, compared with 47% in September 2005, 37% in April 2005 and 32% in August 2004.
Comparisons of disclosures in annual reports is not as relevant in the spring edition of the semi-annual survey, since as of April 15, 2006 many companies have not yet published their 2005 annual report online. However, it should be noted that Estonia is the clear exception in the region. By April 15, 2006 nine of the 10 Estonian companies surveyed had published an English-language version of their annual report online. However, it should be noted that in many cases the annual report is only available on the website of the Tallinn Stock Exchange. Nevertheless, in each of the five previous surveys, all 10 Estonian companies provided electronic versions of their annual report online and in this survey nine of the 10 Estonian companies did so. This was not the case in any of the other 10 countries.
The PFS Program’s seventh regional survey, to be conducted in September 2006, will compare in greater detail disclosure in annual reports with disclosures made in September 2005. It will also continue analyze reporting on company websites and compare the results with the previous surveys. For the second time, the survey will track the number of CEE countries that publish stand-alone ESG reports in English.
The September 2006 edition of the survey will include a first-time comparison with the largest listed companies in the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – with the aim of comparing CEE listed companies’ reporting with that of peers in other emerging markets.
Note: The survey consists of the following documents: a presentation of data aggregated by country; a database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in each of the 11 CEE countries; and a separate database of individual data by company for the ten largest listed companies in Portugal and Spain.
To download the survey and the background databases, please click on the links below:
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Launch of The Baltic Market Awards
On Wednesday, March 15, 2006 OMX’s exchanges in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius launched The Baltic Market Awards. The annual contest will identify and rank the best Baltic market participants. The contest runs during 2006 and assesses all listed Main and I-list Baltic companies’ investor relations and member trading activities. The winners are awarded at a prize ceremony held at the end of the year.
Johan Rudén, President of the Baltic Market business unit at OMX, notes: “The Baltic Market Awards project will be a good encouragement for Baltic listed companies to have top international disclosure practices. This will, with the many excellent companies in the Baltic market, undeniably increase its visibility and trust in the eyes of investors. The companies will have the opportunity to compare themselves with their peers, in order to measure against the best, and to improve over time.”
The mission of The Baltic Market Awards, apart from identifying the best Baltic market participants, is to increase listed companies’ awareness of the significance of disclosure quality, good investor relations and corporate governance practices. In particular, the Awards will identify best practice in organizing websites, drafting reports and preparing corporate disclosures. Though only the best will be singled out and awarded, all companies involved will benefit.
The main award will be for The Best Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries. Other awards are: The Best Investor Relations Among Small Cap (market capitalization under EUR 50 million), The Best Company (of each exchange – Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius), The Best Investor Relations Webpage and, starting in 2007, The Most Visible Improvement Over The Year.
The Baltic Market Awards Evaluation Committee is responsible for development of the criteria and for approval of the results. The members of the Committee represent media (Bonnier Business Press), academic circles, investors and the stock exchanges. The Committee is chaired by Geoffrey Mazullo, Director, PFS Program, an independent representative.
Please click on the following link to read a press release regarding the launch of the Baltic Market Awards: Press Release – March 15, 2006.
Thursday, March 2, 2006
PFS Program’s Tenth Regional Survey - Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the PFS Program publishes its tenth semi-annual survey of online investor relations of the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. PFS Program intern Pawel Dziedzic conducted the survey in February 2006.
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in CEE analyzes the websites of the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in Czech Republic Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia for the tenth time and in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania for the fourth time. The survey provides current data as of February 15, 2006 and comparisons with the nine previous surveys, published in August 2005, February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001. Moreover, the survey includes for the first time an analysis of the websites of the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in Portugal and Spain.
The survey demonstrates that online disclosure by CEE listed companies has improved since the last survey, conducted in August 2005. In particular, the number of companies with local-language and English-language websites has increased to the highest levels recorded since the PFS Program launched its surveys in August 2001. In February 2006, all of the companies surveyed have a local-language website. This is the first time since August 2001 that the PFS Program has observed existence of a local-language website at each of the companies surveyed. Also, the number of companies that provide additional information on supervisory board members (which is traditionally the category with the poorest survey results) increased significantly.
Survey results include the following:
• In February 2006, all of the CEE companies surveyed have a local-language website. As noted above, this is the first time that all CEE companies surveyed have a local-language website since the first survey was conducted in August 2001. In August 2005, 97% of the companies surveyed had a local-language website.
• In February 2006, 94% of the CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website. This is also the highest percentage recorded since the first survey. In August 2005, 87% of the companies surveyed had an English-language website. . Now, in one country, seven of the ten companies surveyed have an English-language website; in four countries, nine of the ten companies surveyed have an English-language website; and in six countries, all ten companies have an English-language website. This represents an improvement since the last survey. In August 2005, in two countries, seven of the ten companies surveyed had an English-language website; in two countries, eight of the ten companies surveyed had an English-language website; in four countries, nine of the ten companies surveyed had an English-language website; and in three countries, all ten companies surveyed had and English-language website.
The PFS Program surveys analyze the websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned eleven CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the ongoing surveys represent a snapshot of this peer group’s disclosure practices on a given day twice a year and thereby provide insights into blue-chip companies’ corporate governance and investor relations practices.
A comparison of the results of the tenth survey of the largest listed companies in eleven CEE countries and the first survey of peers in Portugal and Spain includes the following:
• All of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries and in Portugal and Spain have a local-language website;
• 94% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries (and 97.5% of the companies surveyed in the eight new member states of the European Union [EU]) have an English-language website, compared with 90% in Portugal and 100% in Spain;
• 81% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries provide a list of management online compared with 90% in Portugal and 100% in Spain;
• 46% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries provide additional information on management online compared with 90% in Portugal and 100% in Spain;
• 76% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries provide a list of board members online compared with 90% in Portugal and 100% in Spain; and
• 41% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries provide additional information on board members online compared with 90% in Portugal and 100% in Spain.
The first-time survey of Portugal and Spain enables the comparison of the disclosure practices of the CEE blue-chip peer group with peers in the EU.
Note: The survey, consisting of databases of results by company and a presentation of the results by country, contains the following information: current data as of February 15, 2006 on companies in all eleven CEE countries; comparisons of the data from February 2006 with data from the previous surveys conducted in August 2005, February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001; and separate data as of February 15, 2006 on companies in Portugal and Spain.
To download the survey and the background databases, please click on the links below:
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
PFS Program’s Fifth Semi-Annual Regional Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its fifth semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Ten Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) Countries. Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the fifth time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the fourth time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the third time.
Moreover, in response to a request from the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges, an analysis of CSR disclosures by the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in Greece and Turkey is included in the survey for the first time.
PFS Program interns Joanna Karnat, Janis Oskajs and Tomasz Zych conducted the survey from July through September 2005.
PFS Program surveys analyze the annual reports and websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned 11 CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the semi-annual surveys of reporting on CSR represent a snapshot of this peer group’s CSR disclosure practices on a given day twice a year. Furthermore, by analyzing disclosures in both annual reports and websites, the surveys track the timing of the publication of the annual report and the related yet separate issue of periodic disclosure, namely, how blue-chip companies keep their websites data-rich and up-to-date.
This survey analyzes companies’ disclosures in English (in the English-language annual report and on the English-language company website) during the time period July - September 2005 on the following three topics: corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. The record date for the disclosures is September 15, 2005.
This survey demonstrates a general increase in the amount of information disclosed in the English-language on a range of issues since the last surveys, conducted in April 2005 and August 2004. In several areas, no significant change was observed; only in a few areas was a slight decrease in the amount of information disclosed observed.
In Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia all ten of the companies surveyed have an English-language website; however, companies in Latvia and Lithuania generally do not disclose information on all three topics surveyed. In Hungary, nine of the ten companies have an English-language website. In general, companies in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia are the leaders in disclosing CSR information among the 11 CEE countries surveyed. The level of disclosure among companies in the three non-European Union (EU) member countries (Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania) increased slightly or remained unchanged since the last survey conducted in April 2005.
Survey findings include the following:
· 89% of the companies surveyed have an English-language website (compared with 83% in April 2005 and 84% in August 2004);
· 78% of the companies surveyed have an English-language annual report (compared with 65% in August 2004);
· 79% of the companies surveyed disclose information about their governance structure on their website (compared with 71% in April 2005 and 69% in August 2004);
· 68% of the companies surveyed disclose information about their governance structure in their annual report (compared with 52% in August 2004);
· 48% of the companies surveyed disclose information about their shareholder rights policy on their website (compared with 35% in April 2005 and 46% in August 2004);
· 41% of the companies surveyed disclose information about their shareholder rights policy in their annual report (compared with 44% in August 2004);
· 48% of the companies surveyed mention compliance with environmental standards on their website (compared with 41% in April 2005 and 37% in August 2004);
· 27% of the companies surveyed mention compliance with environmental standards in their annual report (compared with 28% in August 2004);
· 42% of the companies surveyed disclose employee development/benefit policies on their website (compared with 36% in April 2005 and 28% in August 2004); and
· 48% of the companies surveyed disclose employee development/benefit policies in their annual report (compared with 42% in August 2004).
Note: The survey consists of a presentation of data aggregated by country and two separate databases of individual data by company - one database for the ten largest listed companies in each of the 11 CEE countries and a separate database for the ten largest listed companies in Greece as well as Turkey.
To download the survey and the background databases, please click on the links below:
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
PFS Program’s Ninth Regional Survey - Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in Eleven CEE Countries
Today, the PFS Program publishes its ninth semi-annual survey of online investor relations of the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. PFS Program interns Joanna Karnat and Tomasz Zych conducted the survey in July and August 2005.
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in CEE analyses the websites of the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in Czech Republic Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia for the ninth time and in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania for the third time. The survey provides current data as of August 15, 2005 and comparisons with the eight previous surveys, published in February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001. Moreover, in response to a request from the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges, a first survey of websites of the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in Greece and Turkey is also published.
The survey demonstrates that online disclosure in CEE has improved since the last survey, conducted in February 2005. In particular, the number of companies with local-language and English-language websites has increased to the highest levels recorded since the PFS Program began its surveys in August 2001.
Survey results include the following:
· In August 2005, 97% of the CEE companies surveyed have a local-language website. This is the highest percentage recorded since the first survey, conducted in August 2001. In February 2005, 95% of the companies surveyed had a local-language website.
· In August 2005, 87% of the CEE companies surveyed have an English-language website. This is also the highest percentage recorded since the first survey. In February 2005, 82% of the companies surveyed had an English-language website. Furthermore, there has been improvement in the underperformers; now, in each of the 11 countries at least 7 of the 10 companies surveyed have an English-language website. In February 2005, in two countries only 6 of the 10 companies surveyed had an English-language website.
The PFS Program surveys analyze the websites of the ten largest listed companies in the above-mentioned eleven CEE countries in order to document the current disclosure practices of this “blue-chip” peer group and identify best practice among the peer group. Whereas the universe of companies surveyed may change over time due to changes in a company’s market capitalization, the ongoing surveys represent a snapshot of this peer group’s disclosure practices on a given day twice a year and thereby provide insights into blue-chip companies’ corporate governance and investor relations practices.
A comparison of the results of the ninth survey of the eleven CEE countries and the first survey of Greece and Turkey includes the following:
· 97% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries have a local-language website compared with 90% in Greece and 90% in Turkey;
· 87% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries have an English-language website compared with 90% in Greece and 90% in Turkey;
· 78% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries provide a list of management online compared with 70% in Greece and 70% in Turkey;
· 40% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries provide additional information on management online compared with 50% in Greece and 50% in Turkey;
· 69% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries provide a list of board members online compared with 90% in Greece and 80% in Turkey; and
· 29% of the companies surveyed in the eleven CEE countries provide additional information on board members online compared with 60% in Greece and 50% in Turkey.
The first-time survey of Greece and Turkey enables the comparison of the disclosure practices of the CEE blue-chip peer group with peers in neighboring countries, one an EU member state and the other a neighboring emerging market.
Note: The survey, consisting of databases of results by company and a presentation of the results by country, contains the following information: current data on companies in all eleven CEE countries; separate data on companies in the Eight New Member States of the European Union (EU); separate data on companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania; comparisons of the data from August 2005 with data from the previous surveys conducted in February 2005, August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001; and separate data on companies in Greece and Turkey.
To download the survey and the background databases, please click on the links below:
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Fourth Semi-Annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Central and Eastern Europe
Budapest, Hungary
Today, the Partners for Financial Stability (PFS) Program publishes its fourth semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the 10 Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the fourth time; companies in Hungary and Poland were surveyed for the third time; and companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were surveyed for the second time.
The survey was conducted by PFS Program interns Szymon Gawel, Monika Sowinska and Dominika Sipowicz.
The survey analyzes companies’ disclosures in English on the English-language company website and in the English-language annual report during April 2005. It documents a generally similar level of disclosure on company websites to that observed in August 2004 across all three information categories analyzed – corporate governance, environmental policy and social policy. However, in certain countries, availability of English-language websites has increased. Also, corporate governance codes significantly impact reporting on corporate governance issues in certain countries.
In Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia all 10 of the companies surveyed have an English-language website; however, companies in Latvia and Lithuania generally did not disclose information on all three categories surveyed. In Hungary, nine of the 10 companies have an English-language website. In general, companies in Hungary, Poland and Slovenia disclosed the most information online. The level of disclosure decreased in Bulgaria and Romania, perhaps due to the fact that due to changes in market capitalization the universe of companies surveyed changed significantly. Approximately half of the companies in each country were surveyed for the first time. By contrast, the level of disclosure improved in Croatia.
Survey findings include the following:
· 83% of the companies surveyed have an English language website (compared with 86% in August 2004 and 85% in April 2003);
· 71% of the companies surveyed disclose information about their governance structure on their websites (compared with 69% in August 2004 and 50% in April 2004);
· 41% of the companies surveyed mention compliance with environmental standards on their websites (compared with 37% in August 2004 and 28% in April 2004);
· 37% of the companies surveyed disclose information about sponsorships on their websites (compared with 28% in August 2004 and 31% in April 2004); and
· 20% of the companies surveyed note compliance with a corporate governance code on their websites (whereas in August 2004 the percentage was 7%).
Comparisons with disclosure in annual reports is not as relevant in this survey, since as of April 15, 2005 many companies have not yet published their 2004 annual report online. However, it should be noted that Estonia is the clear exception in the region. By April 15, 2005 each of the 10 Estonian companies surveyed had published an English-language version of their annual report online. However, it should be noted that in many cases the annual report is only available on the website of the Tallinn Stock Exchange. Nevertheless, in each of the four surveys to date, all 10 Estonian companies provided electronic versions of their annual report online. This was not the case in any of the other 10 countries.
The fifth survey, to be published in August 2005, will compare disclosure in annual reports with disclosures made in August 2004. It will also continue to track trends in reporting on company websites.
To download the background database and the survey, please click on the links below:
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Conclusion of PFS Program Regional Activities in the Three Baltic Republics
Washington, DC and Budapest, Hungary
On March 31, 2005 the PFS Program – Baltic Republics, jointly funded by the United States Department of State and EWMI, concluded regional activities in the three Baltic Republics - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The PFS Program – Baltic Republics, jointly funded by the United States Department of State and EWMI, began on January 1, 2004. Over the course of 15 months, the PFS Program conducted several regional training programs in the three Baltic Republics related to: corporate governance; internal audit of financial sector regulatory and supervisory authorities; International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS); and prevention of money laundering. In addition, the PFS Program provided one grant to a non-governmental organization in each of the three Baltic Republics to co-finance a financial sector research project. Information about each of the above-mentioned activities may be found on the respective country page and the respective substantive page of the PFS Program website as well as on the news update pages for 2004 and 2005.
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in CEE
PFS Program Intern Szymon Gawel conducted the PFS Program’s eighth semi-annual survey of online investor relations of the 10 largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. In addition to Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia this survey includes Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania for the second time.
The survey demonstrates slightly improved online disclosure by the largest listed companies in the eight new member states of the European Union (EU) and slightly poorer yet generally stable second time survey results in the three EU-accession countries.
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in CEE analyses the websites of the ten largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in each of the following CEE countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. The survey provides current data as of February 21, 2005 and comparisons with the seven previous surveys, published in August 2004, February 2004, August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001.
As in the most recent survey, the percentage of companies with a local-language website remains at 95%. In August 2004, 95% of the companies surveyed had a website.
In February 2005, 82% of the companies surveyed have an English-language website, in comparison with 84% in August 2004.
When taken as a group of eleven countries, the results in all categories surveyed remained relatively stable. However, when analyzing the eight new member states of the European Union (EU) separately, a slightly improved disclosure policy can be observed.
Survey findings of the eight new member states of the EU include the following:
97% of the companies surveyed have a local language website (compared with 95% in August 2004);
87% have an English-language website (compared with 84% in August 2004);
80% provide a list of management online (compared with 84% in August 2004);
43% provide additional information on management online (compared with 38% in August 2004);
70% provide a list of board members online (compared with 70% in August 2004); and
29% provide additional information on board members online (compared with 23% in August 2004).
Three of the 110 companies surveyed provide information about the number of shares owned by each member of management and the supervisory board.
The findings of this second survey of companies in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania show a slight decease in online disclosure in comparison with August 2004; however, in general the thresholds are rather stable.
The PFS Program hopes that the surveys represent an ongoing contribution towards independent research in these eleven CEE countries. A research paper produced by the working group Independent Research Think Tank and published on February 11, 2005 called for more independent research in the EU. George Möller, chief executive of Robeco, and leader of the working group, opines, “Independent research is an important element in the maintenance of integrity in the marketplace, as it offers investors a neutral analysis of a company’s prospects.”
To download the survey and the background database, please click on the links below:
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by Listed Companies in the Three Baltic Republics
Tallinn, Estonia
During the second half of 2004, Rita Ilisson conducted a research project entitled, “Implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by Listed Companies in the Three Baltic Republics.” The research project was co-financed by a PFS Program Grant.
Preliminary findings from the research were presented at a seminar entitled, “Application of and Compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards” organized by the PFS Program, in cooperation with the Tallinn Stock Exchange (OMX Exchanges), on October 27, 2004 in Tallinn, Estonia. The final research report was completed in December 2004 and submitted to the PFS Program for publication in late January 2005.
The research project consists of the following components: a background paper outlining the rationale for the research project; a paper presenting the overall findings; a paper presenting the research conducted of the financial statements of companies listed on the Riga Stock Exchange; a paper presenting the research conducted of the financial statements of companies listed on the Vilnius Stock Exchange; a paper presenting the research conducted of the financial statements of companies listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange; and one appendix. To download the documents, please click on the links below.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Seminar on Application of and Compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)
Tallinn, Estonia
On October 27, 2004 the PFS Program, in cooperation with the Tallinn Stock Exchange (OMX Exchanges) conducted a seminar entitled, “Application of and Compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards.”
21 accounting/finance specialists from Estonian financial institutions and listed companies as well as four representatives of Lithuanian accounting and capital markets institutions attended the seminar.
To download the agenda, presentations and list of participants, please click on the links below:
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Third Semi-Annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Central and Eastern Europe
Budapest, Hungary
Today, the PFS Program publishes its third semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the 10 Largest Listed Companies (by Market Capitalization) in Central and Eastern Europe. Companies in Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia were surveyed for the third time. Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were included in the survey for the first time. The survey was conducted by PFS Program Interns Marek Korycki, Izabela Samson, Zuzana Schwartzova and Adam Szymasiuk.
The survey provides current data concerning companies’ disclosures on a range of CSR issues in annual reports and on websites as of August 15, 2004. For the companies from the eight new member states of the European Union (EU), comparative data from the previous surveys conducted in April 2004 and August 2003 is presented
In general, disclosures on CSR issues were similar to those observed in the survey conducted in April 2004. However, the survey demonstrates improvement in the quality and quantity of disclosures about corporate governance issues. As noted in the survey conducted in spring 2004, EU accession and adoption of corporate governance codes in several countries in 2003/2004 are two factors influencing broader and deeper reporting.
Survey findings include the following:
· 86% of the companies surveyed have an English language website (compared with 85% in April 2004 and 85% in August 2003);
· 74% of the companies surveyed provide an electronic version of the English-language annual report for 2003 (compared with 76% of the companies who provided a 2002 or 2003 annual report in April 2004);
· 99% of the companies surveyed disclose information about their governance structure in their annual report (compared with 59% in April 2004 and 40% in August 2003);
· 35% of the companies surveyed note compliance with environmental standards in their annual report (the same percentage as in April 2004 whereas in Augsut 2003 the percentage was 19%); and
· 51% of the companies surveyed mention employee development or benefits policy in their annual report (compared with 49% in April 2004 and 34% in August 2003).
In terms of disclosures made on company websites, other comparative findings include the following:
· In August 2004, 53% of the companies surveyed disclosed information about their shareholder rights policy; in April 2004, 51% of companies disclosed this information; and in August 2003, 14% of companies disclosed this information.
· In August 2004, 31% of the companies surveyed provided information about their environmental performance; in April 2004, 28% of companies provided this information; and in August 2003, 14% of companies surveyed provided this information;
· In August 2004, 17% of companies provided information about compliance with labor standards; in April 2004, 21% of companies provided this information; and in August 2004 only 3% of companies provided this information.
The first time results for Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania are positive; whereas few companies disclose complete information in English on all three information categories surveyed, at least one company from each country disclosed information on each of the five questions in each of the three categories. This demonstrates an awareness of these issues in each country.
To download the survey and the background databases, please click on the links below:
Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Workshop on Internal Audit of Financial Sector Supervisory and Regulatory Authorities
Tallinn, Estonia
On June 29-30, 2004 the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority (EFSA) and the PFS Program held a Workshop on Internal Audit of Financial Sector Regulatory Authorities (FSRAs) in Tallinn, Estonia. The workshop was organized as a follow-up to the Study Tour to the United States (US) organized by the PFS Program in February 2003 (See entry below dated February 22 – March 1, 2003.)
This workshop represented the first meeting of internal auditors of FSRAs from nine countries: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Spain, the United Kingdom and the US. The primary focus group was the internal auditors of unified FSRAs. In addition, a senior auditor of the State Audit Office of Estonia, the internal auditor of the Bank of Spain and an auditor from the Office of the Inspector General of the US Federal Reserve Board also participated in the workshop.
This initiative was conceived and proposed by the internal auditor of the EFSA, a relatively new institution, established in early 2002 through the merger of previously separate regulatory authorities for banking, capital markets and insurance. (See a related article entitled, “Trend towards Consolidated Financial Supervisory Authorities,” dated October 9, 2002 on the Capital Markets Research page of this website.)
The EFSA identified a number of issues of mutual interest to internal auditors of unified FSRAs, including (from the general to the specific): globalization of financial markets; growing complexity and sophistication of financial products offered to consumers; increased regulatory and supervisory requirements related to European Union (EU) accession; increased regulatory focus on issues such as conflict of interest, corporate governance, ethics, and enterprise-wide risk management; harmonization of regulatory and supervisory functions in one institution; and identification of best practices and discussion of international standards for internal audit.
The EFSA sent an invitation to the workshop and a questionnaire about the internal audit function to more than 30 FSRAs in Europe and the US. The questionnaire results were presented and discussed at the workshop.
The workshop provided an opportunity for internal auditors of FSRAs to share practical experiences, compare audit methodologies and review actual audits conducted.
The questionnaire results and the conclusions of a roundtable discussion at the end of the workshop resulted in a proposal that this pilot workshop serve as a starting point for future annual meetings of internal auditors of FSRAs. A letter summarizing the workshop proceedings will be distributed to the above-mentioned 30 FSRAs, with the goal of organizing a second annual workshop in 2005.
To download the agenda, presentations and a list of participants, please click on the links below:
Thursday, June 10, 2004 - Friday, June 11, 2004
Regional Workshop on Prevention of Money Laundering
Tallinn, Estonia
On June 10-11, 2004 the PFS Program, in cooperation with the Central Criminal Police (Financial Intelligence Unit) and the Estonian Police Board, conducted a Regional Workshop on Prevention of Money Laundering. This was the fifth in a series of case-study based regional workshops organized by the PFS Program that bring together law enforcement experts from across new and old member states of the European Union (EU) and the US.
The participant breakdown was as follows: Estonia – two judges, 17 policemen/women from the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit and the Estonian Police Board, five prosecutors, a financial auditor of the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority and an investigator of the Tax and Customs Board; Germany – one certified fraud manager (a former judge and prosecutor); Latvia – two transactions analysts of the Latvian Office for the Prevention of Laundering of Proceeds of Derived from Criminal Activity; Lithuania – one inspector and one investigator of the Lithuanian Financial Crimes Investigation Service, two judicial assistants of the Supreme Court of Lithuania and two prosecutors; Poland – one judge and three prosecutors; Slovenia - the Director of the Slovene Office for Money Laundering Prevention; UK - one barrister; and Ukraine – the Deputy Head and two staff members of the analytical subdivision of the State Department for Financial Monitoring.
On the first day of the workshop, specialists from Estonia, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, and the UK presented case studies demonstrating a range of issues and experiences in combating money laundering. On the second day, participants debated case studies presented by participants from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. This in-depth discussion of real life situations from the four jurisdictions, complemented by insights offered by German, Slovene and UK practitioners, proved to be an extremely fruitful exercise, enabling the exchange of lessons learned and identification of best practices.
To download the agenda, presentations, speaker CVs and list of participants, please click on the links below:
Thursday, May 6, 2004 - Friday, May 7, 2004
Participation in Second Annual Baltic Management Development Association (BMDA) Conference, “Enhancing Baltic Managerial Competitiveness”
Riga, Latvia
On Thursday, May 6 – Friday, May 7, 2004 the Baltic Management Development Association (BMDA) held its Second Annual Conference, “Enhancing Baltic Managerial Competitiveness” in Riga, Latvia. 86 participants from 13 countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Switzerland, the UK and the US) attended the conference. For more information about the conference, please visit the BMDA website.
Geoffrey Mazullo, Director, PFS Program gave a presentation entitled, “Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility by Listed Companies in Baltic Countries.”
To download the presentation, please click on the link below:
Wednesday, May 5, 2004
Second Semi-Annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Central and Eastern Europe
Budapest, Hungary
Today, the PFS Program publishes its second semi-annual Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the 10 Largest Listed Companies (by Market Capitalization) in Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The survey was conducted by PFS Program Interns Katarzyna Hanula and Marek Korycki.
The survey provides current data concerning companies’ disclosures on a range of CSR issues as of April 15, 2004 and a comparison with the previous survey conducted in August 2003. Comparative data from the previous year is not available for Hungarian and Polish companies, since the surveys conducted in those countries in 2003 analyzed information provided in Hungarian and Polish respectively. Additionally this survey analyzes disclosures related to corporate governance codes in those countries with such a code, i.e. Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The survey conducted in 2003 did not analyze such disclosures, because a corporate governance code either did not yet exist or had only recently been issued in the respective country.
The survey demonstrates that disclosures on CSR issues increased significantly over the past six months. Survey findings include the following:
-85% of the companies surveyed have an English language website;
-76% of the companies surveyed provide an English-language annual report for 2002 or 2003;
-59% of the companies surveyed mention employee development or benefits policy;
-51% of the companies surveyed note compliance with environmental standards; and
-20% of the companies surveyed disclose information regarding compliance with a Corporate Governance Code.
Comparative findings include the following:
-In April 2004, 40% of the companies surveyed disclosed information regarding the environmental impact of their operations; in August 2003, only 22% of companies surveyed provided this information.
-In April 2004, 36% of the companies surveyed provided audit-related information on their website; in August 2003 only 13% of companies surveyed provided this information;
Two significant factors influenced the improved results observed in this survey. First, several stock exchanges implemented corporate governance codes in 2003 and 2004. These codes provide an additional impetus/pressure to disclose a variety of data. Second, Hungary and Poland are covered by this regional survey for the first time and the above-average disclosures of Hungarian and Polish companies improved the general (regional) averages. For example, excluding Hungary and Poland, the above-mentioned averages decline to 30% (environmental impact) and 35% (audit-related information) respectively. Nevertheless, even without including these countries, a marked improvement can be observed.
The PFS Program will continue to analyze this issue; we will conduct a third semi-annual Survey in August 2004.
To download the background database and a presentation of the survey results, please click on the links below:
Monday, March 1, 2004
Investor Relations Online: Survey of Websites of the Largest Listed Companies in CEE
PFS Program Intern Katarzyna Hanula conducted the PFS Program’s sixth semi-annual survey of online investor relations of the 10 largest listed companies (by market capitalization) in each of the following countries: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. The survey provides current data and comparisons with the five previous surveys, completed in August 2003, February 2003, August 2002, February 2002 and August 2001.
The survey demonstrates that a majority of the largest listed in the region communicate with shareholders and potential investors via the Internet, in local language and in English. Nevertheless, comparison of this survey with the two surveys conducted in 2003 indicates that certain thresholds have been reached, and further improvements above these thresholds have not been made. For example: in February 2004, 95% of the companies surveyed have a website (in comparison with 96% in August 2003 and 95% in February 2003) and 75% have an English-language website (in comparison with 83% in August 2003 and 80% in February 2003).
Furthermore, as noted in previous surveys, many companies still do not provide additional information in English about management and supervisory board members. The survey suggests that “best practice” would include a separate page of the website dedicated to investor relations, including a photo and short biography of each senior manager and each member of the board of directors/supervisory board.
To download the survey and the background database, please click on the links below:
Thursday, January 1, 2004
United States Department of State and EWMI Commence Joint Financing of the PFS Program in the Three Baltic Republics
Washington, DC and Budapest, Hungary
The United States Department of State and EWMI commenced joint financing of the PFS Program in the three Baltic Republics - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - on January 1, 2004. The PFS Program is scheduled to continue activities through June 30, 2004.
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
Conclusion of PFS Program Regional Activities in Five Central and Eastern European Countries
Budapest, Hungary
On December 31, 2003 EWMI concluded PFS Program regional activities in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. From 2000 through 2003, the PFS Program (active in the above countries as well as in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) was funded under a cooperative agreement between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and EWMI.
Beginning January 1, 2004 EWMI will continue to cooperate on specific financial sector reform initiatives in the five above-mentioned Central and Eastern European countries on a case-by-case basis.
Under a new grant from the US Department of State, EWMI will continue PFS Program activities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania through June 30, 2004.
Monday, September 22, 2003
Second Annual Survey of Websites of 42 Securities Commissions
In 2003, the PFS Program commissioned Digital Strategies Group, Inc. to conduct a second annual Survey of Websites of Securities Commissions in 42 Countries.
The inaugural survey was conducted in 2002 in response to a request from the Lithuanian Securities Commission.
The purpose of the surveys is fourfold: First, to survey what information the investing public can obtain in the English language via the websites of the securities commissions; Second, by analyzing the above, to survey how the securities commissions are informing, educating and thereby protecting the investing public; Third, to identify and survey best practices in investor education, information and protection via the websites of the securities commissions; and fourth, to share the survey results with securities commissions in the eight PFS countries and thereby promote: (a) discussion of lessons learned and (b) implementation of best practices.
This research was presented for the first time at a Seminar on Issuer Disclosure and Corporate Governance, organized by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Estonian Financial Supervision Authority, USAID and the PFS Program. The presentation took place on Thursday, September 18, 2003 in Tallinn, Estonia.
To download the survey, please click on the link below:
Monday, September 15, 2003 - Friday, September 19, 2003
Issuer Disclosure and Corporate Governance Seminar
Tallinn, Estonia
From Monday, September 15 through Friday, September 19, 2003 the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Estonian Financial Supervision Authority, USAID and the PFS Program conducted a Seminar on Issuer Disclosure and Corporate Governance. The seminar took place in Tallinn, Estonia. 46 participants representing securities commissions and stock exchanges from 18 countries in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe as well as the Newly-Independent States attended the seminar. Among the participants were representatives of securities commissions and/or stock exchanges from all eight PFS Program countries: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia.
To download the agenda, presentations and a list of participants, please click on the links below:
 | Agenda - September 15-19, 2003.doc - 52 KB |
| Presentation - IPO and Listing Requirements - September 15, 2003.ppt - 103 KB |
| Presentation - Nonfinancial Disclosure Requirements - September 15, 2003.ppt - 136 KB |
| Presentation - IAS IFRS - September 15, 2003.ppt - 164 KB |
| Presentation - Financial Statements - September 15, 2003.ppt - 132 KB |
| Presentation - Advising on the Public Offer - Tark & Co - September 15, 2003.ppt - 77 KB |
| Presentation - Offering Process - September 15, 2003.ppt - 61 KB |
| Presentation - Processing Disclosure Documents - September 16, 2003.ppt - 85 KB |
| Presentation - Risk Factors - September 16, 2003.ppt - 135 KB |
| Presentation - Management's Discussion and Analysis - September 16, 2003.ppt - 72 KB |
| Presentation - Fraudulent Reporting - September 16, 2003.ppt - 199 KB |
| Presentation - HEX Tallinn - September 16, 2003.ppt - 279 KB |
| Presentation - Detection of Financial Fraud - September 16, 2003.ppt - 160 KB |
| Presentation - Geoffrey Mazullo, Director, PFS Program - September 16, 2003.ppt - 761 KB |
| Presentation - EU and US Reporting - SOx - September 17, 203.ppt - 209 KB |
| Presentation - Annual Meeting - September 17, 2003.ppt - 62 KB |
| Presentation - Takeover Bids - September 18, 2003.ppt - 116 KB |
| Presentation - Underwriting Arrangements - Analyst Problems - September 18, 2003.ppt - 83 KB |
| Presentation - Best Efforts Underwriting Problems - September 18, 2003.ppt - 83 KB |
| Presentation - Disclosure of C I Schemes - September 18, 2003.ppt - 427 KB |
| Presentation - Investment Funds - September 18, 2003.ppt - 86 KB |
| Survey - Websites of Securities Commissions - Conducted by Digital Strategies Group, Inc.2 - September 2003.ppt - 5,638 KB |
| Presentation - Eesti Telecom - September 19, 2003.ppt - 502 KB |
| Presentation - Timely Disclosure and Insider Trading - September 19, 2003.ppt - 80 KB |
| List of Participants - September 15-19, 2003.doc - 54 KB |
Thursday, September 4, 2003
Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the Largest Listed Companies in Central and Eastern Europe
Intern Amanda Schneier conducted the PFS Program’s first Survey of Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by the 10 Largest Listed Companies (by market capitalization) in Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The survey investigates companies’ disclosures on a range of CSR issues as of August 15, 2003.
Encompassing accounting standards, corporate governance, environmental policies and social policies, the survey analyzes corporate reporting on matters that previously might not have been considered essential. However, as the above-mentioned countries enter the European Union (EU), listed companies will come under the tighter scrutiny of EU disclosure requirements about these issues. Also, in a more global marketplace, listed companies will face more CSR-conscious investors and consumers.
This inaugural survey is designed to inform investors, listed companies, the public-at-large and regulators by providing a regional overview of current disclosure practices and facilitating an easy comparison of best practices. Via hyperlinks, a reader can move from the database directly into a company’s website and/or annual report to see how and where the specific information is disclosed. The survey should also enable the benchmarking of reporting in these countries against other countries in the EU and elsewhere.
Hungary and Poland are not covered in this survey. PFS Program grants to research institutions in those countries are currently co-financing similar surveys of all listed companies in those countries. That research, and a similar survey of all Czech listed companies, also co-financed by a PFS Program grant, will be published on this page in autumn 2003.
To download the survey and the background database, please click on the links below:
Saturday, February 22, 2003 - Saturday, March 1, 2003
Study Tour to the United States for Internal Auditors of CEE Consolidated Financial Supervisory Authorities
Washington, DC and Philadelphia, PA
The PFS Program organized a study tour on internal audit for staff of the following institutions (in alphabetical order by country): Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority; Hungarian Financial Supervisory Authority; Latvian Financial and Capital Markets Commission; Supervisory Commission for Insurance and Pension Funds (Poland); Slovak Financial Market Authority.
The study tour visited the following institutions (in alphabetical order) in Philadelphia, PA and Washington, DC: City of Philadelphia – Office of the City Controller; Department of Insurance and Securities Regulation (DISR) of the District of
Columbia; Ignet - Website of the Federal Inspectors General; International Insurance Foundation; National Association of Insurance Commissioners; National Association of Securities Dealers; United States Agency for International Development; United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; United States Federal Reserve Board; United States Department of the Treasury; United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Saturday, January 25, 2003 - Saturday, February 1, 2003
Study Tour of Baltic Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) to the United States
Washington, DC and New York, NY
The PFS Program organized a study tour on prevention of money laundering for the Money Laundering Information Bureau of Estonia, the Financial Intelligence Unit of Latvia and the Financial Crime Investigation Service of Lithuania.
The study tour visited the following institutions (in alphabetical order) in New York and Washington, DC: East-West Management Institute; FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), United States Department of the Treasury; Global Anti-Money Laundering Services, Deloitte Touche Tomatsu; New York County District Attorney’s Office; Office of International Affairs, US Securities and Exchange Commission; Office of Market Transition Europe & Eurasia Bureau, USAID (United States Agency for International Development); Patton Boggs LLP; Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC), American University.
Wednesday, February 6, 2002 - Friday, February 8, 2002
Regional Meeting of the International Network of Pension Regulators and Supervisors (INPRS) for Central and Eastern European Countries
Tallinn, Estonia
The PFS Pension Reform program supported and organized the Regional Meeting of the International Network of Pensions Regulators and Supervisors for the Central and Eastern European Countries. The meeting was held back to back with the OECD Workshop on insurance and private pensions in Baltic States on February 6th - 8th in Tallinn, Estonia. Over 80 people attended the events.
Topics related to pension reform were discussed on both events. The first session of the Workshop on insurance and private pensions in Baltic States was devoted to three major insurance policy issues: e-insurance, policyholder protection funds and insurance of emerging systemic risks. The second session focused on common insurance and private pension issues, i.e. portfolio management and annuities. The Regional INPRS meeting was chaired by Mr. Parniczky, and mainly discussed options for legal form, governance and supervision of pension schemes, as well as fee structure, disclosure and education.
The documents of the Meeting can be downloaded from OECD Workshop on Insurance and Private Pensions and INPRS Regional Meeting Tallinn, Estonia.
Tuesday, June 19, 2001
Investor Relations Seminar
Tallinn, Estonia
In cooperation with the Tallinn Stock Exchange, the PFS Program held an investor relations seminar for Estonian issuers. Presenters included: the investor relations officer of the Estonian bank Hansabank; a representative of the digital investor relations service provider Hanashi IFC; the investor relations officer of the Finnish forestry company UPM-Kymmene; and Geoffrey Mazullo, Director of the PFS Program. The seminar introduced best practices and international standards in corporate financial disclosure and investor relations. Representatives of the Riga Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of Lithuania attended this pilot seminar, which will be repeated in autumn 2001 at several other Central and Eastern European Stock Exchanges.
To download the agenda, presentations and a list of participants, please click on the links below.
Wednesday, March 28, 2001
UK Investor Relations Society - 2001 Annual Conference
London, United Kingdom
In March 2001, the PFS Program sponsored the participation of the Tallinn Stock Exchange in the 2001 annual conference of the Investor Relations Society in London, UK. Representatives of five other Central and Eastern European (CEE) stock exchanges participated in this PFS-sponsored initiative to promote awareness of and launch training on investor relations for CEE issuers.
Thursday, February 1, 2001
Comparative Analysis of Corporate Governance and Shareholders Rights in Central and Eastern Europe
In February 2001, the Securities Inspectorate of Estonia provided the PFS Program with data for the PFS comparative study of corporate governance and shareholders' rights in Central and Eastern Europe.
Monday, January 1, 2001
Regulatory Environment
A listing of Estonian legislation may be found at the website of the Estonian Legal Translation Center.
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