About us
Latest news
Investis IQ Corporate Website ranking launched in Finland
11/06/2009
Investis has extended its IQ Benchmarking service to the Finnish market with the release of a ranking of the corporate websites of OMXH25 companies, which will be launched at the NIRC Conference in Helsinki on Thursday 11th June. Nestle Oil heads the rankings, with Nokia, M-Real, Fortum and Metso Group making up the top 5 in our survey.
The survey revealed a much tighter grouping of scores than was seen in recent rankings of the top companies in Germany and the UK, with the average score beating that of the FTSE100 index but falling just short of the standard set by the DAX30. Finnish company websites perform particularly well in serving their Investor audiences, with extensive disclosures of governance and ownership detail, in line with requirements laid down by Finland’s corporate governance code.
Regulatory requirements only partly explain the strength of these sites in communicating with investors. More generally the survey showed that Finnish companies are better than their international peers in providing a clear account of the drivers of business performance and contextual information about the broader dynamics of the markets in which the companies operate. A refreshing sense of transparency and confidence was displayed by a number of companies in providing links to their competitors’ sites.
Commenting on the survey, Investis Director Al Loehnis said “The investor communication qualities of the OMXH25 websites reflects well on the regulatory regime in Finland, which has raised the bar for transparency in corporate governance through its website disclosure requirements. We believe that regulators internationally should follow their lead in recognizing that greater transparency isn’t just a matter of what you are required to disclose, but where you are required to disclose it too. Following the market turmoil of recent months corporate websites are now the front line of a company’s communications and will play an important role in rebuilding the shattered confidence of investors and other stakeholders, through timely, broad and open disclosure.”
Less positively, the survey revealed a wide discrepancy in the quality of disclosure around environmental and corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues. While companies like Nokia and M-Real provide a comprehensive and engaging account of CSR, a number of companies make no effort to address these issues on their websites at all.
The full ranking and a report on the survey can be found on www.investis.com, along with details of the methodology and information about our IQ Benchmarking service.
Detailed analysis of their IQ Benchmarking scores and those of their peers are provided on a quarterly basis to Investis clients as part of our ongoing service.
For further information on the Investis IQ corporate website rankings, or to download a report on the survey of OMXH25 websites, please visit www.investis.com/investis/aboutus/iqranking/.
T. +44 (0)20 7038 9023
F. +44 (0)20 7038 9001
E. enquiries@investis.com
Recruitment:
T. +44 (0)20 7038 9000
E. recruitment@investis.com
For all our contact details visit Contact us.
