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GE, Coach, Limited Brands and Applebee's International were among the top US companies celebrating their wins at the annual IR Magazine US Awards held on March 30 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. CNBC anchors Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla hosted the black-tie event.
Over 2,900 sell-side analysts, buy-side analysts, portfolio managers and retail investors in North America voted for the top corporate communicators. Investors voted GE, Coach, Limited Brands and Applebee's International as best in the grand prix for best overall investor relations in the following respective categories: mega-cap, large cap, mid-cap and small cap. Cisco Systems' John Chambers won in the best investor relations by a chairman or CEO category. The best investor relations office categories according to market size went to Coach's Andrea Shaw Resnick in the large to mega-cap category, Limited Brands' Tom Katzenmeyer & Amie Preston won in the mid to large-cap cateory while Applebee's International's Carol DiRamio won in the small to mid-cap category. A full list of the winning and short-listed companies is attached.
The IR Magazine US Awards is in its 12th year and attracts close to 1,000 investor relations professionals, CEOs, CFOs and service providers annually.
Research was based on a large and comprehensive sample provided by our research partners Thomson Financial, iDeal, Barron's and BetterInvesting. The buy side is represented by 6,506 institutions in the sample provided by Thomson Financial and iDeal, 459 investment banks represent the sell side. When combined with the retail sample from Barron's Online, invitations to participate in this survey were sent to 35,337 individuals involved with investment decisions. BetterInvesting separately sent 40,000 email invitations to its members asking them to participate in this survey as well as posting a link on its website to the survey.
Respondents were also surveyed on specific issues in investor relations such as whether investor relations professionals were providing the information needed to make informed investment decisions. Sell-side respondents still flagged up that after downgrading a stock they felt shut out from a company's communication efforts with 52 percent agreeing.
Hedge funds were also seen as a potential trouble spot - particularly by retail investors, of whom 69 percent believed hedge funds could threaten market stability. Hedge funds were less of a concern for the sell side, with only 33 percent saying they could affect market stability. The buy side (which included hedge funds) was slightly more concerned, with 44 percent agreeing they could have an impact.
However, despite concern there was little enthusiasm for further regulations. In 2006 41 percent of buy-side respondents felt there should be regulation of hedge funds - a figure that has decreased to 27 percent, while only 19 percent of sell-side respondents thought there should be any regulations compared with 24 percent in 2006.
The awards are sponsored by Barron's, BetterInvesting, Business Wire, Deutsche Bank, Edelman, GE, Georgeson, Innisfree, Institutional Investor, InterCall, Ipreo, JP Morgan, MacKenzie, MarketWire, Mellon, Merrill Corporation, NASDAQ, NYSE Group, Precision IR, PR Newswire, Shareholder.com, SNL IR Solutions, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Thomson, VDM Specialists and Verizon.
1. Cross Border Ltd (formerly Cross-Border Publishing) was founded in the UK in 1993 and is the publisher in New York and London of IR magazine, the only global publication focused on the interface between companies and their investors. IR magazine hosts annual awards ceremonies in the US, the UK, continental Europe, India, Canada, the Nordic region, Asia, Brazil and Ireland with a combined annual attendance of around 8,000 investor relations professionals. Cross Border also publishes Corporate Secretary in North America and CorpComms in the UK. www.thecrossbordergroup.com
2. The IR Magazine US Awards are the latest in the ongoing annual series of surveys and awards conducted around the world by Cross Border. Winners of the investor relations awards are selected through independent surveys of investment professionals and retail investors. These investor perception studies together make up the world's largest survey of its kind, canvassing over 8,000 portfolio managers, buy-side and sell-side analysts and retail investors in more than 14 countries or regions. Survey respondents nominate companies in specific categories as well as offer their opinions on specific IR-related topics and trends.

IR Magazine US Awards 2007
Winners and short-listed companies

Best annual report - large to mega-cap
Winner - Berkshire Hathaway
Aflac Incorporated
GE

Best annual report - mid to large cap
Winner - Expeditors International of Washington
Darden Restaurants
L-3 Communications, Inc
Limited Brands
Whole Foods Market

Best annual report - small to mid-cap
Winner - RPM International Inc
Baldor Electric Company
Copart
Fastenal Company

Best communications with the retail market
Winner - Aflac Incorporated
Berkshire Hathaway
GE
Microsoft Corporation

Best corporate advertising
Winner - United Technologies
Aflac Incorporated
Allstate Insurance Company
GE

Best corporate governance
Winner - GE
Cisco Systems
Microsoft Corporation
PepsiCo
The Procter & Gamble Company

Best crisis communications - large to mega-cap
Winner - Pfizer Inc
Boeing
DuPont
Merck & Co, Inc

Best disclosure policy
Winner - The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc
Cisco Systems
TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation
Time Warner Inc

Best investor relations by a chairman or CEO
Winner - Cisco Systems, John Chambers
Winner - The Procter & Gamble Company, AG Lafley
PepsiCo - Indra Nooyi

Best investor relations by a European company in the US market
Winner - Nokia
F Hoffmann-La Roche
Novartis Corporation
SAP

Best investor relations by an Asia-Pacific company in the US market
Winner - Toyota Motor
Honda Motor Co, Ltd
Infosys Technologies Ltd
Nidec Corporation
Sony Corporation
StarHub

Best investor relations for an IPO
Winner - Western Union
Chipotle Mexican Grill
J Crew Group

Best investor relations officer - large to mega-cap
Winner - Coach, Inc, Andrea Shaw Resnick
Cisco Systems, Blair Christie
Yum! Brands, Timothy Jerzyk

Best investor relations officer - mid to large cap
Winner - Limited Brands, Tom Katzenmeyer & Amie Preston
Cincinnati Financial Corporation, Heather Wietzel
E*TRADE Financial, Adam Townsend
Humana Inc, Regina Nethery
Intuit Inc, Robert Lawson
Southwestern Energy Company, Brad Sylvester

Best investor relations officer - small to mid-cap
Winner - Applebee's International, Carol DiRaimo
Citrix Systems, Inc, Jeff Lilly
Harsco Corporation, Eugene Truett
Lyondell Chemical Company, Doug Pike

Best investor relations web site - mid to large cap
Winner - General Motors Corporation
Goodrich Corporation
Limited Brands
Southwestern Energy Company

Best M&A investor relations
Winner - Hewlett Packard/Mercury Interactive
Abbott/Kos Pharmaceuticals

Best senior management communications
Winner - Cisco Systems
Intuit Inc
Lam Research Corporation
Varian Semiconductor Equipment

Best use of conferencing - small to large cap
Winner - Zions Bancorporation
Celanese Corporation
Humana Inc
Lyondell Chemical Company
NCI Building Systems

Best use of technology
Winner - GE
Cisco Systems
Microsoft Corporation

Most improved investor relations
Winner - DuPont
Circuit City Stores, Inc
GE
Genworth Financial
Oracle Corporation

Lifetime achievement
DeWitt Morrill

Grand prix for best overall investor relations - mega-cap
Winner - GE
AT&T Inc
Cisco Systems
Microsoft Corporation
The Walt Disney Company.

Grand prix for best overall investor relations - large cap
Winner - Coach, Inc
Praxair
The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc
Yum! Brands

Grand prix for best overall investor relations - mid-cap
Winner - Limited Brands
Harsco Corporation
Lyondell Chemical Company

Grand prix for best overall investor relations - small cap
Winner - Applebee's International
Celanese Corporation
Kyphon Inc
The South Financial Group

Source: IR Magazine
Website: http://www.irmagazineus.com/

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