Qatar Stock Exchange and Iridium Launch Investor Relations Excellence Program for a Second Year

Sept 21, 2016

 In view of Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) keenness to encourage listed companies to adhere to the international best practices in disclosure, transparency and investor relations (IR), and shortly after launching the IR Excellence Program in 2015 in cooperation with Iridium, which acts on behalf of QSE in rating and assessment mission; QSE management is pleased to announce the launch of the Program for a second year.

The QSE will launch a new online tool to help listed companies to understand the assessment mechanism used in IR Excellence Award in order to help them understand how to further improve their IR Excellence score. The IR Excellence Program will also feature a new “most improved company” investor relations award for the first time this year, the exchange announced today.

Under the rating and assessment system used in the IR Excellence Program, all Qatari listed companies are automatically entered into the assessment program. A public voting system and a detailed website ranking of all companies will be conducted in the third quarter 2016. All members of the investment community will be eligible to vote for the best companies. Iridium, on behalf of Qatar Stock Exchange, will manage the distribution of emails and questionnaires to a database of over 2,000 regional and international investor and broker contacts who are active in the Qatari market.

The online IR Tool enables companies to see how their website ranking last year was broken down into technology, content and service, and what they can do in order to improve their score. All companies received access to this tool, creating an equal opportunity for everyone to achieve a higher result. This will allow the listed companies to highlight areas for improvement and what they can do to increase their IR Excellence score when their website is ranked again later this year.

The Program was designed to recognize listed companies and individuals who display best practice in investor relations. The winners of last year were: Best Qatari company overall for excellence in Investor Relations was QNB; Best large cap company: QNB; Best mid cap company: Doha Bank; Best small cap company: Mazaya Real Estate; Best Chief Financial Officer: Ramzi Mari of QNB; Best Investor Relations Officer: Andreas Goldau of Ooredoo; Best investor relations website: Ooredoo, Al Khaliji Commercial Bank and Vodafone Qatar.

Mr. Rashid Bin Ali Al-Mansoori, CEO of Qatar Stock Exchange, has expressed satisfaction of the advanced IR level achieved by Qatari listed companies and said: “Our IR Excellence Program is returning better and stronger this year, with a new category and a new software tool. These new features will help encourage Qatar’s listed companies to further improve their investor relations programs, supporting our mandate to continually strengthen Qatar’s position among global emerging markets.”

Mr. Oliver Schutzmann, CEO of Iridium, said: "This year’s innovations are all about assisting companies to improve their investor relations, and rewarding them for doing so. High quality investor relations are at the heart of market accessibility and support the ongoing development of successful capital markets, and Qatar Stock Exchange’s initiatives are leading the region in working towards this ambition.”

Mr. Abdul Aziz Al Emadi, Director of Listing Department in QSE, said: “The new features of the program will encourage companies to improve on last year’s scores by improving the technology, content and service provided by their IR websites.”