(Vienna) Today, the Wiener Börse Award 2009 was conferred twelve times in four categories:
ATX Award
- Österreichische Post (First Place)
- Andritz (Second Place)
- Telekom Austria (Third Place)
Small und Mid cap Award
- Rosenbauer International (First Place)
- Kapsch TrafficCom (Second Place)
- Agrana (Third Place)
Corporate Governance Award
- Telekom Austria (First Place)
- Verbund (Second Place)
- Erste Group (Third Place)
Sustainability Award
- Palfinger (First Place)
- Verbund (Second Place)
- Österreichische Post (Third Place)
The Wiener Börse Award is a joint initiative of Aktienforum, Cercle Investor Relations Austria (C.I.R.A.), Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), Austrian Association for Financial Analysis and Asset Management (ÖVFA), Association of Austrian Investment Companies (VÖIG), Vienna Stock Exchange and the Special Government Representative for the Capital Market and Corporate Governance, Richard Schenz.
"The winners of today's award represent the successful commitment of Austria's business sector," said Finance Minister Josef Pröll at the ceremony of the Wiener Börse Award 2009. "The Austrian capital market and its listed companies have been rapidly gaining significance in the past few years and are major contributors to the prosperity of Austria."
"Even though we are currently seeing an economic contraction in Central and Eastern Europe, this region is still one of the most dynamic markets in Europe," said Ewald Nowotny, Governor of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. "The close relations maintained by Austrian companies in Central and Eastern Europe are not only of enormous significance for the individual actors, but also for the entire Austrian economy."
Valuation Criteria in Detail
The winners are selected by a jury of the ÖVFA. The Corporate Governance Award was conferred by a jury of the Special Representative for the Capital Market and Corporate Governance, and members of the ÖVFA.
The ATX Award goes to those companies that excel on the capital market with respect to the following criteria: financial reports (comprehensiveness of financial statements and notes, quarterly reports, clarity, information content, ratios), investor relations (information flow, willingness to cooperate, analysis meetings, quality of documents, reachability, information, Internet, financial calendar, availability, roadshows), strategy and company management (clear/focused strategy, track record/history, credibility management, implementation, openness/transparency, risk warnings) and technical market factors (hard facts like price performance and liquidity in the past year).
The Small and Mid-cap Award distinguishes those companies in the ATX Prime Index – with the exception of the ATX companies. The award is conferred according to the same criteria as for the ATX Award.
The Corporate Governance Award honors a company's compliance with the Austrian Code of Corporate Governance (deviations from rules, explanations), compliance with recommendations (e.g. website, remuneration, internationality, women in management positions, etc.), external evaluation of the Code (consultants/auditors, verifiability, Internet) and transparency (availability of information, IR, risk notices).
The Sustainability Award is being conferred today for the second time and to three companies for the first time. The evaluation was carried out based on 100 criteria and 400 indicators. Public and individual company sources were taken into account (annual reports and questionnaires) as well as secondary sources such as media reports. Companies that actively exercise their responsibility vis-à-vis stakeholders and whose field of business does not belong to the armaments, nuclear power, addictive drugs, or genetic engineering industries are assessed as a sustainable business.
The following institutions evaluated the awards on behalf of the ÖVFA: The research departments of Erste Group, Raiffeisen Centrobank, Sal. Oppenheim, UniCredit as well as asset managers Bawag P.S.K., Erste-Sparinvest, Raiffeisen Capital Management, 3 Banken Generali Investment. The complete list of the companies evaluated, including their rankings, is available on the website of the ÖVFA: