Fifteen listed companies on the HCM City Stock Exchange on Thursday were honoured with an IR Award for having the best investor relations in 2018.

The awards, voted for by investors and financial institutions, were divided into three groups based on market capitalisation (large, medium and small and micro).

The winners of IR Awards voted by investors were Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Khang Dien House Trading and Investment JSC, Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (large capital), An Phat Plastic and Green Environment JSC, Hoa Sen Group, Phat Dat Real Estate Development Corporation (mid cap), and DRH Holdings JSC, Digiworld Corporation and Hang Xanh Motors Service JSC (small and micro cap).

Awardees for IR activities voted by financial institutions were Hoa Phat Group, VinGroup, Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (large capital), Dat Xanh Group, HCM City Securities Corporation, Nam Long Investment Corporation (mid cap), and Digiworld Corporation, Hang Xanh Motors Service JSC and Ba Ria-Vung Tau House Development JSC (small and micro cap).

Organised by the online newspaper Vietstock and the Financial and Life online magazine FiLi.vn of the Viet Nam Association of Financial Executives, the annual awards seek to raise awareness among listed companies of the need to comply with information disclosure requirements and to have good relations with investors in general and shareholders in particular, in order to have an open, transparent and effective stock market.

Nguyen Nhu Hung, editor-in-chief of Fili.vn, said the award was based on a survey of compliance with information disclosure obligations of the Vietnamese stock market of 686 listed companies. As many as 266 of them have met the requirements.

To win an award, listed companies must have full and timely compliance with regulations about information disclosure, pass rigorous checks on liquidity conditions and foreign ownership ratio, and pass an evaluation round on investor relations by financial institutions, as well as receive the highest number of votes from investors.

After a check of liquidity conditions and foreign ownership ratio, 45 out of 266 listed firms were included on the list of nominees for the awards, he said.

Hung said this year’s survey found that listed companies have been better at complying with information disclosure requirements, with 38.8 per cent of surveyed companies fully complied with disclosure requirements compared to nearly 17 per cent last year.

This showed a dramatic improvement in the relationship between businesses and investors, he said, adding that more executives care about the investor community and appreciate the role of IR activities in optimising corporate value. — VNS