RIYADH: Jarir Marketing Co., Savola Group and Arab National Bank (ANB) were presented the top three awards, in that order, in the BMG’s Transparency Awards 2008 at the InterContinental Hotel, Riyadh, yesterday.
Eleven companies were short-listed from 111 companies that were reviewed over a period of nearly six months. The reviewing and selection exercise began in January 2008.
Almarai Company, ANB, Bank Albilad, Banque Saudi Fransi, Jarir, Mobily, Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), Samba Financial Group, SABB (Saudi British Bank), Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) and the Savola Group were the 11 firms that were on the short list from which the winners were picked. Representatives of all the short-listed companies were given a memento, as a token of appreciation, yesterday.
The awards, set to be an annual event, is an initiative aimed to enhance awareness, emphasize the importance and encourage public companies to be forthcoming and open with market players in order to increase investor trust in the market that would eventually lead to a more efficient and stable financial environment. “BMG is proud to introduce the Transparency Award to Saudi Arabia this year and is extremely positive about the medium— to long-term effects this can have on the Kingdom’s financial markets,” said Basil Al-Ghalayini, CEO of BMG Financial Advisors.
Jarir emerged the first choice for it scored well in both the quantitative and qualitative criteria (especially its easy to navigate website), has top management that is willing to share information, and is responsive to different queries by different investors in the best possible way.
Savola too scored well in terms of its website, and its periodic newsletters too were informative. Also its physical annual report was the best annual report the organizers received.
ANB secured points with its annual report having plenty of details. It also scored well qualitatively, as communication and response to and from the company remained effortless throughout the exercise. They also archived properly past financials on their website, which was easy to navigate.
The awards were structured and based on select criteria and a well established methodology developed by BMG, which conducted and concluded a multiple stage screening process to come up with the finalists that have proven to be the most transparent on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).