A preview of this year's survey of European investors and analysts to find the best performing IR departments
Germany is the daddy of Europe. Beyond the country’s manufacturing prowess, represented on the street by the world-famous car marques that roll off the production lines in Stuttgart, Wolfsburg and Munich, the German taxpayer also handles the wheel and picks up the bill when it comes time to bail out fellow members of the Eurozone, like Ireland, Greece and Portugal. But is Germany beginning to assert its dominance over the European IR community as well?
This year will be the second time XbInsight’s European investor perception study, which underpins the IR Magazine Europe Awards, has been produced on a pan-European basis. At various times it has been produced separately for the UK, Ireland, continental Europe, Russia & the CIS, and the Nordic countries. But as both the investment and corporate communities have come to treat Europe as a single market, the research and the awards have fallen into line.
There are 41 German companies on the short lists for the IR Magazine Europe Awards 2011: the most from any single country (excluding the country-specific awards). This figure is up from 38 in 2010 and contrasts with the UK – the previous leader – whose total has fallen from 41 to 37.
Once again, BASF, the winner of last year’s grand prix for a large-cap firm, tops the table of the most short-listed European companies. The German chemicals giant is short-listed 10 times this year, beating its tally of eight in 2010 when it went on to win three awards (adding regional and sector awards to its grand prix).
In fact, German companies come out on top whichever way you look at the data. They account for 22 of the top 100 European companies ranked by total points across all awards categories, up from 18 last year.
To put this in context, our researchers spoke to more than 700 portfolio managers and analysts this year, more than a third (255) of whom are UK-based, compared with 68 in Germany, 55 in France and 47 in the Netherlands.
The Nordic countries are the other notable regional gainers in 2011, led by the Danes, up from four to seven companies in the top 100 this year. Finland has six, up from two in 2010, and Sweden now has four; last year its highest-ranked entry was Swedbank at number 118. 
The outlier is Norway, which has seen its representation in the top 100 list drop from three companies to one, although there is still one Norwegian company short-listed for an award this year, the same as in 2010.
In continental Europe, the Netherlands has seen the highest number of companies drop out of the top 100, falling from 12 to seven since last year. Moreover, 18 Dutch companies were short-listed for awards in 2010 compared with exactly half that number this year.
The total number of short-listed Irish, Portuguese and Spanish companies is also lower this year. Is this because the sovereign debt crisis is having a negative effect on the perception of the IR programs of firms from struggling European economies – or perhaps on the budgets their companies have to spend on IR? Either way, it appears not to affect Greece, whose companies are nowhere to be seen in the top 100 either this year or last.
Of course, if Europe is now one big investment and corporate family, it’s perhaps inappropriate to analyze the results by country at all. Better to make comparisons by sector. The big story here is the return of the European banks and financial services firms to the top of the list. Last year the highest-ranked bank was at number 29. This year one sneaks into the top 10 at number nine, and there are 15 banks in the top 100, up by two thirds on the 2010 tally of nine.
The retail sector has taken the biggest hit, perhaps a knock-on effect of the increased difficulty its IROs are having explaining the impact of debt-laden Europeans heeding calls to save rather than spend.
About XbInsight
XbInsight is IR magazine’s research brand, building on the publication’s established global research efforts. Since 1991, IR magazine has taken its renowned investor perception study around the world to markets as diverse as Brazil, China, Singapore, the Nordic region, South Africa, Canada, the UK and the US. In every market, the process is the same: each year thousands of buy-side analysts, sell-side analysts and portfolio managers are asked which companies have the best investor relations.
XbInsight is building on that expertise and launching a series of studies examining successful investor relations and the key drivers of investor sentiment.
It also provides:
-High-quality thought-leadership studies
-Benchmarking initiatives, including IR magazine’s online interactive benchmarking tool
-Global consolidated IR magazine research.
Specifically, the research division at XbInsight is looking to understand why some companies perform better than others in IR magazine’s investor perception studies. The first step in conducting this analysis is to gain a deeper understanding of the different IR practices at listed companies around the world.
