TSMC and SingTel rule Asian IR

The average investor relations professional is expert at repeating the same investment story over and over again to investors and analysts, meeting after meeting, while conjuring up the same enthusiasm as the very first time.

Little wonder, then, that the leading exponents of the IR craft were able to give a fine display of this kind of verbal dexterity while collecting multiple awards at IR magazine‘s Greater China and South East Asia best practice awards, held in Hong Kong and Singapore, respectively, at the end of 2011.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) dominated the Greater China awards, winning seven trophies in total. The following week Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) picked up five awards in Singapore. Each total represents a record haul for the company concerned.

For both companies it also meant sending a representative up on stage, at the Conrad Hong Kong and Singapore Exchange, respectively, to think of a new way to accept each award without repeatedly thanking investors and analysts and sending everyone to sleep.

TSMC dominates

TSMC came into the event gracing eight short lists. The first award up for grabs was the best in the technologies sector across Greater China.

The contest pitted the semiconductor firm against HTC and Delta Electronics. The HTC delegation, sitting at the opposite end of the ballroom, had also come to the event featuring on eight award short lists.

TSMC and HTC, moreover, featured on seven of the same short lists, a fact Neil Stewart, awards MC and editor-at-large of IR magazine, reminded the audience of just before the first winner was unveiled.

A cheer went up from the TSMC table when the winner was announced. Elizabeth Sun, the long-standing head of IR at the company, almost ran to the stage to accept the award.

Asia Top 50 At the awards events in Greater China and South East Asia, IR magazine launched the Asia Top 50 as a new benchmark for IR in Asia. The IR league table, published exclusively in IR magazine‘s Investor Perception Study, Asia 2011/2012, ranks all the companies included in the Asia research, based upon the same points tallies that go into determining the award winners at both Asian events. The purpose is to give recognition to the companies that score highly overall, as well as to those that win one or more of the awards. As the table shows, multiple award-winners like SingTel, TSMC and CapitaLand battled it out for the top spot, with the Singaporean telecoms company taking the acclaim for the inaugural best IR practice across Asia. The new rankings are also just recognition for companies like HTC, ranked at number four, which was short-listed for eight awards but ended up winning only one. The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer beat Anta Sports, which won a total of five awards, into fifth place. Similarly, OCBC, CapitaMall Trust and Delta Electronics featured prominently in the top 10 without any of them winning a single award. For a full list of winners from the Greater China Awards, please go to www.irmagazine.com/gchina. For a full list of winners from the South East Asia Awards, please go to www.irmagazine.com/seasia.

The competition between TSMC and HTC made victory all the sweeter, she said. ‘That sounds like a throw-down,’ added Stewart, stoking up the tension as Sun walked off the stage.

Next up came best reporting in Taiwan. This time TSMC faced down AU Optronics and HTC. The IR team at TSMC is in charge of the annual report, Sun declared, making it an honor to accept the award.

Moments later she was back up on stage, delivering a slightly tweaked acceptance speech for best investment community meetings in Taiwan (at the expense of HTC once more): IR professionals spend most of their time in investor meetings, so that award was a real triumph, Sun noted.

Individual stars

The speeches kept coming from Sun. She flitted between accepting her own individual honor as best IR officer in Taiwan – for the fifth time in the last six years – and as proxy for best CFO in Taiwan.

‘Lora Ho is my boss,’ Sun explained. ‘She’s a fantastic boss, so I’m very happy to receive this award on her behalf.’

Prior to the 2011 event, TSMC had won the best investor relations in Taiwan award 10 years in a row. Could the company make it 11, asked Stewart, or would HTC interrupt the TSMC-themed party and exact some payback for earlier losses?

The record 11th win left Sun speechless on stage, albeit momentarily: she recovered her tongue in time for the grand prix award for large-cap companies across mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

‘This is the one,’ she announced, clutching the top award on stage for the first time, before signing off: ‘Good IR is good corporate culture. Good corporate culture is good ethics. Good ethics is good business.’

In the end, the only award TSMC didn’t win – best IR by a CEO in Taiwan – went to HTC’s Peter Chou. Bragging rights in CEO circles, perhaps.

Besides Sun, other faces that became a familiar stage presence by the end of the awards include Paul Ling, CFO of Anta Sports, who collected five awards, including the grand prix for best IR by a small or mid-cap company, and Angus Yiu of SmarTone who picked up two awards, including best IR officer in Hong Kong.

SingTel's record haul

At Singapore Exchange, multiple award-winner SingTel took a different approach to keeping the message fresh.

As each award winner was announced, different members of the SingTel IR team came on stage to collect the trophy for best reporting, best IR in the technologies and telecoms sector, best corporate governance and disclosure policy, and best investment community meetings.

In fact, as the ceremony drew toward the unveiling of the grand prix for large-cap companies – the top award SingTel was beaten to by CapitaLand last year – the only face conspicuously absent from the stage was that of Sin Yan Fong, head of IR at the Singaporean telecoms company.

The reason for her no-show became clear when SingTel reclaimed the top award it had previously won in 2009. Jason Lim, IR manager at SingTel, came to the stage to deliver the acceptance speech he thought his boss – taking a well-deserved break on a beach on Bali – would want him to make.

‘I would like to thank the IR team, both in Australia and Singapore, which includes myself,’ he joked.  

The other big winner at the event was CapitaLand, which won best IR by a CFO, best IR officer and best IR in the real estate sector.

Accepting the latter award, Harold Woo, CapitaLand’s good-humored head of IR, used the opportunity to market an upcoming property development to the assembled audience of IROs and senior management.

Read about IR magazine's conferences in Hong Kong and Singapore, which took place before the awards.