DOHA: Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), in collaboration with Iridium Investor Relations, today launches the fifth 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.
Abdul Aziz Al Emadi, Listings Director of QSE, said: “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. 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.”
“Over the years, the IR Excellence Program has enabled the QSE to focus on creating awareness for the importance of the investor relations function. As a result, a growing number of companies have made improvements to institutionalize and internationalize their investor relations efforts. We are committed to helping more companies adopt best practice standards. Building on the momentum that we have created to date, our goal is to take investor relations in Qatar to the next level,” Al-Emadi added.
A public voting system and a thorough IR website ranking of all listed companies will be conducted during the month of November and December 2019. Both retail and professional members of the investment community will be eligible to vote for the best investor relations efforts by the companies.
Since inception in 2015, the IR Excellence Program methodology has been made publicly available to the market every year in advance of the unbiased review process. To ensure fairness and credibility of the award, the IR Excellence Program cannot be sponsored.
Ooredoo received recognition as the best Qatari firm for IR Excellence in February 2019. The best small (Al Meera), mid (Vodafone) and large cap (Qatar National Bank) companies, as well as the best Chief Executive Officer (Sheikh Saud bin Nasser Al Thani of Ooredoo), Chief Financial Officer (Mr. Ajay Bahri of Ooredoo), the best Investor Relations Officer (Mr. Andreas Goldau of Ooredoo) and the best corporate IR website (Qatar National Bank) in the country, were also recognized.
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 of the ranking. This enables all market participants 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.