Twenty-seven companies from 12 different countries shared awards across 31 categories as the cream of the European IR community put on its finery for the IR Magazine Awards – Europe 2022 last night.
Italian banking giant Intesa Sanpaolo took home three awards, including two of the most coveted trophies of the night: best overall investor relations in the large-cap category and the best investor relations officer (large cap) gong for Marco Delfrate and Andrea Tamagnini. The firm also took the best in sector award in the financials category.
The winners list at this year’s event – which returned to an in-person format for the first time since the pandemic hit – is one of the most diverse in years, with many companies winning trophies for the first time.
Some of the other big awards of the night saw Poland’s LPP take the gong for best overall investor relations in the mid-cap category, while Norway’s Norske Skog took that award among the small-cap contenders. Carl Vanden Bussche of Belgian firm Barco won best investor relations officer in the small to mid-cap category.
Click here for a full list of winners from last night’s IR Magazine Awards – Europe 2022.
Two new trophies
Around the world, IR Magazine Awards are split into two categories: researched awards, where the winners are chosen by the investment community, and awards by nomination, where winners are picked by a panel of judges.
For the IR Magazine Awards – Europe 2022, the judging panel comprised:
- Mike Allen, head of research at Zeus Capital
- James Beech, editor-in-chief at IR Magazine
- Heinrich Ey, director and co-chief investment officer for German and European mid/small caps at Allianz Global Investors
- Simon Gleadhill, corporate reporting and IFRS technical controller at Howden Joinery Group
- Madeleine Szeluch, investor relations ESG director at Novartis
- Gervais Williams, head of equities at Premier Miton Investors.
Whittling down the competition, the judging panel chose winners across 15 different awards, including two new categories added for 2022: best innovation in shareholder communications – won by Baloise Group from Switzerland – and best retail IR strategy, with the trophy going to Valmet of Finland.