Iberdrola takes pole position at the IR Magazine Awards – Europe 2017
Southern Europe’s IR excellence was highly honored last night at the IR Magazine Awards – Europe 2017, as Spain’s Iberdrola topped the rankings for the first time and Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo took third place behind the UK’s AstraZeneca, with three more Spanish names and one Portuguese firm cited in the top 20.
Gathered at London’s Park Lane Hotel for the now traditional gala evening, the European IR community gave much applause to Iberdrola, which has been steadily moving up the top 10 ranks from seventh in 2014, to third in 2015 and second last year. The Bilbao-based utilities firm, which attracted five nominations this year, won the awards for best overall investor relations, best IR in region and best in the utilities sector, while its IRO Ignacio Cuenca was runner-up for best IRO in the large-cap category.
Last year in 29th position, this year Intesa Sanpaolo won the gongs for best corporate governance & disclosure and best in the financials sector, from a total of five nominations.
Roche Holding and Unilever took fourth place jointly, while German companies took the remaining positions up to 12th – except the seventh, which went to Portugal’s EDP – with awards regulars adidas, BASF, Deutsche Post DHL, Lanxess, Allianz and Continental all featured, in that order.
In the small & mid-cap category, Lanxess took home the prize for best overall IR, while Hugo Boss’ Dennis Weber won best IRO.
The judged awards, now in their second year, saw companies compete for six new categories in addition to the existing three, including best annual report, best crisis management and best ESG communications. Duncan Browne, head of IR and financial media at UK-based Saga, was named as this year’s rising star.
The Euro Top 100 and the majority of the award winners were identified by means of a survey of the European investment community. A full list of researched categories and details of the results of this research are reported in detail in the IR Magazine Investor Perception Study – Europe 2017. The judged awards were subject to a vote by a panel comprising investment professionals, a former IR veteran and a senior IR Magazine editorial team member.
