QSE and Iridium Announce Launch of Investor
Relations Excellence Program
October 21, 2018
Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), in collaboration
with Iridium Investor Relations, today launches the fourth
annual Investor Relations (IR) Excellence Program, which aims to
help listed companies in Qatar further improve investor
relations best practices. Since its inception in 2015 as the
first recognition program of its kind in the GCC, the IR
Excellence Program rewards companies and their leaders for their
investor relations achievements.
Mr. Rashid Bin Ali Al-Mansoori, Chief
Executive Officer of Qatar Stock Exchange affirmed that it has
never been more important for listed companies to engage in a
meaningful dialogue with existing and prospective shareowners
that fosters truth and trust. Since it is critical to keep the
investment community informed through professional investor
relations activities, he said, the QSE IR Excellence Program has
been created to recognize the best organizations and leaders in
Qatar who excel at creating a clear picture about their listed
company’s strategic, financial and operational developments, and
adhere to the highest standards of transparency and disclosure.
For the fourth consecutive year, and subject
to the public voting system, a thorough IR website ranking of
all listed companies will be conducted from mid-November to
end-December 2018. Both retail and professional members of the
investment community will be eligible to vote for the best
investor relations efforts by the companies. Iridium Investor
Relations, an independent IR advisory specialist, will manage
the distribution of emails and questionnaires to a database of
over 2,000 regional and international investor on behalf of QSE.
The firm will also be responsible for ranking the company’s
websites.
Since the program launch in 2015, the IR
Excellence Program methodology has been made publicly available
to the market every year in advance of the review process. To
ensure the credibility of the award, the IR Excellence Program
cannot be sponsored.
Qatar National Bank received recognition as
the best Qatari firm for IR Excellence in February 2018. The
best small (Al Meera), mid (Vodafone) and large cap (Qatar
National Bank) companies, as well as the best Chief Financial
Officer (Mr. Ramzi Marri of QNB), the best Investor Relations
Officer (Mr. Andreas Goldau of Ooredoo) and the best corporate
IR website (Ooredoo) in the country, were also recognized.
Mr. Abdul Aziz Al Emadi, Director of Listing
Department at QSE, added that during the first three years of
the IR Excellence Program, the QSE focused on creating awareness
for the importance of the investor relations function. As a
result, a growing number of companies has made improvements to
their investor relations efforts. He added that QSE is now
committed to helping more companies adopt international best
practice investor relations standards. Building on the momentum
that have been created to date, the goal is to take investor
relations in Qatar to the next level, he concluded.
The IR Excellence Program has been
benchmarked globally against best practices to ensure a fair,
credible and transparent methodology. The full methodology and
all rating criteria will be made available to the public in
advance. This enables all companies to review categories and
selection criteria, and gives them some advance notice to adjust
their Investor Relations efforts, especially with regards to the
information services they provide through their IR websites.
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