It’s all very well for companies to do what is expected of them. It’s when they go above and beyond their mandate to raise the profile of the firm in their sector and the wider stakeholder community that people start to take notice. The four firms awarded for The Asset Best Investor Relations Team Award have outperformed and taken their companies to the next level in the past 12 months.
 

The responsibilities of an investor relations team run the gamut from releasing annual and interim results, announcements and circulars, holding shareholder meetings, sellside analyst calls, site visits, investor conferences and non-deal roadshows, communication and feedback with senior management and of course upholding disclosure standards. 
 

The winning teams have voluntarily released unaudited operational and performance statistics on a frequent basis, held knowledge sharing sessions, ran financial modelling seminars, engaged in environmental, social and governance activities or even set up an instant messaging group for industry updates.
 

China Overseas Land & Investment’s IR team successfully navigated the company through an asset injection, an inaugural euro corporate bond issuance and a spin-off of their property management arm. They also achieved a credit rating from Moody’s and S&P as well as an upgrade from Fitch Ratings to the highest rating among all China real estate developers.
 

In response to investor feedback on the complexity of the company and the petrochemical industry, Indorama Ventures’ IR team produced fact sheets including demand and supply data, historical information, consultant forecasts and even a financial model upon request. They run seminars specific to retail investors and penned a white paper reassuring investors and analysts on a competitor’s move to enhance their PET supply in North America.
 

Faced with the drastic drop in oil price, PTT Exploration and Production, the upstream flagship of PTT, had to manage investor confidence in the face of an industry downturn. As the IR team proactively educated retail investors, the share price movement was stable after the company reported an impairment charge during their earnings announcement in October of last year. The team has enhanced the use of mobile technology offering an infographic series on oil and gas accounting and financial reporting, an online IR database and a corporate video via QR code accessible on mobile devices.
 

Its parent, PTT’s IR team was able to announce and execute a business continuity management plan to ensure work was uninterrupted during a political demonstration that occurred adjacent to their head office. They arranged trips for stakeholders to visit established schools and held site visits for analysts involving tree planting. They also published a quarterly magazine for their investors, ran a marathon for company employees and debenture holders and set up an “IR Toolkit” for team members on tablets for mobility.
 

To view the awardees of The Asset Corporate Awards 2016 - Best Investor Relations Team, please click here.