Corporates congratulated on communications

Winners were announced at the annual awards dinner held by IR magazine at the Hilton Sandton in Johannesburg, which drew an audience of more than 200 individuals. The evening's master of ceremonies was Summit TV anchor Lindsay Williams.

Standard Bank Group was the evening's biggest winner, taking home three awards including the grand prix for best overall investor relations for a company in the JSE top 40 index and the award for best BEE.

Metropolitan Holdings won the grand prix for best overall investor relations for a company not included in the top 40 index and the award for best investor relations officer for a company not included in the top 40 index. A surprise win in the best IR by a CEO category was Harmony's Bernard Swanepoel who secured investors' votes for the second year running.

Winners were selected through an independent survey of 95 sell-side and buy-side analysts, portfolio managers and retail investors conducted by London-based Mary Maude Research.

For the past five years, Cross-Border Publishing, publishers of IR magazine, has commissioned this annual independent survey of the investment community to identify those companies considered to be leading exponents of investor relations in the UK. The research encapsulates industry changes, reviews investors' requirements and investigates contemporary developments affecting the IR profession.

This year's research, conducted in February and March, questioned investors about hostile takeovers in South Africa, which many cited as a positive form of corporate activity.

However, many were less sanguine about the Harmony bid for Gold Fields. Respondents at the time complained that while there is nothing wrong with hostile bids - which are good shock-inducers - this bid was 'value-destroying for both companies' and served more as an example of what not to do.

Matthew Gower, international editor of IR magazine, says: "It's been a year of tough business challenges, mounting disclosure requirements and rising compliance costs for South African companies, yet they are taking investor relations to new highs. As enthusiastic latecomers to the IR scene, South African companies have reached a stage of IR development where improvements are less noticeable and increasingly difficult to quantify."