The Asian Excellence Awards are designed to recognize the achievements and excellence in management acumen, financial performance, corporate social responsibility, environmental practices and investor relations. Since its inception in 2011, we have bestowed accolades on the Best CEO, Best CFO, Best Corporate Social Responsibility, Best Environmental Practices, Best Investor Relations, Best Investor Relations Professionals and Best Financial Public Relations Companies. For this year edition, we’ve picked the winners from several countries across the region, including P.R China , Hong Kong SAR , Indonesia , Malaysia , the Philippines , Singapore , Taiwan, Thailand , Vietnam

 

These awards are in the tradition of the high standards set and uphold by Corporate Governance Asia, the authoritative voice in corporate governance practices in the region. These honours are designed to inspire excellence among the different layers in corporate hierarchy, especially now that Asia continued to gain further recognition in the global arena as a favoured investment destination in view of its robust economic growth.

 

Indeed, Asia continued to attract capital that provided the region with a wall of liquidity, but this inflow comes with the increasing scrutiny from the global investors who are looking for avenues to park their money. They are looking for the best investment opportunities, for the highest yields for their capital, yet they are doing so with well-rounded parameters which include corporate governance.

 

Best CEO

 

The board of directors represents the shareholders in managing the affairs of the company. The directors recognize their responsibilities to boost shareholder’s value and to conduct themselves in accordance with the highest standards of corporate governance.

 

But it is the CEO – he/she could be the chairman/chairperson, president and managing director depending on the company designation – who is responsible for driving the overall management and growth of the company. In many ways, he/she is the face of the company among the investors, shareholders and all the stakeholders. So much is riding on his/her capability, management skill and reputation to lead the company. He/she provides leadership to the board, ensuring that the board works effectively and discharges their responsibilities to the best of their abilities.

 

The award for Best CEO goes to a person who is the embodiment of all the qualities mentioned above. In choosing among our candidates, we are looking at:

 

1. How did the company performed in the past calendar year or fiscal year in terms of financial results and how would you compare it with the previous year’s performance?

2. Did the management undertake any transaction in the past year that contributes to the further growth and expansion by the company (This could be a merger, an acquisition, a joint venture or an expansion programme, etc)?

3. Did the management undertake any business reorganization that enhances the competitiveness of the company within its industry? Please elaborate, if there’s any.

4. Overall, what would consider as your best accomplishment in the past year?

5. Please provide career and educational background

 

 

Best CFO

 

The financial and economic crises that stoke the global economy every now and then call for astute management of the company’s finances. The chief financial officer (CFO) is a company's financial leader and it is often his/her mandate to figure out the company’s funding requirements. He/she can decide whether a transaction can be consummated. This calls for an accurate assessment of the prevailing market environment to proceed and tap the capital markets for funds. He/she decides which funding avenue to tap, which funding source will offer the company the most competitive pricing and how the company can broaden its investor base by diversifying its funding sources.

 

The CFO should be able to pinpoint the window of opportunity as the capital markets open and shut very quickly during volatile market environment. His/her financial repertoire should include liability management in order to boost the company’s financial structure and manage its debt maturity profile. His/her functions, though, should not be limited to capital markets activity and in many instances also includes finance and treasury operations, business planning and strategic procurement, among others.

 

The award for Best CFO goes to the candidate that leads his/her company into the capital markets both in good times and in bad times. In other words, he/she steadies the ship, so to speak, in whatever market backdrop at any point in time.

 

Please provide full scope of responsibilities as well as career and educational background.

 

Best Investor Relations Company

 

A company should maintain an open and transparent communications with its investors in order to build and enhance investor confidence. Through investor communication, the company should address the various information requirements by the general investing public in order to make an informed investment decision. The investor relations team should continually provide quality and timely information, both operational and financial, to enable the investing community to better understand the company’s business activities.

 

The award for Best Investor Relations team is given to a company that is committed to the highest standards of disclosure, transparency and fairness in disseminating information. Apart from the regular periodic reports submitted to the regulatory authorities, the team should take extra efforts to boost their communications with all the stakeholders: We are asking the candidates to address the following:

 

1. Who among the members of the senior management team are directly involve in investors’ communication and in what way they are involve?

2. How often does your company conduct analyst briefings for equity and credit analysts (sell side and buy side) and how many did you conduct in the past 12 months?

3. Apart from annual general meeting, extraordinary general meeting, announcement of interim results, what are the other means that your company communicate with institutional and individual investors (ie, one-on-meetings, conference calls)

4. How many roadshows (deal or non-deal related) did your company arrange in the past 12 months and did you made any presentation to any international investor conference? Please highlight the presentation.

5. What were the new initiatives undertaken by the investor relations team that enhances your company’s communication with the investors? What was the feedback to those new initiatives

 

Asian Healthcare Award

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Most Promising Investor Relations Team

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This is a new award category given to those company who are bringing their IR practices to a new level. 



Best Investor Relations Professionals

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This award recognizes the people who play the leading role in keeping the company in touch with its investors and keeping the investors well informed about the company that they invest into. He/she is at the forefront of investor relations activity, articulating the company’s business to the investment community. Please provide career and educational background.



Best CSR

 

A company undertakes its business in a manner that places emphasis on the social and environmental impact on the community where it operates. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a commitment to developing and implementing policies that adopt responsible policies and practices into the daily operations of the business.

 

One of the early drivers of CSR is philanthropy, making company contributions to worthwhile causes. For instance, a company would set up a foundation into which it would allocate resources for charity works. But CSR has since evolve and supplanted by broader and wider commitments to several aspirations, including the protection and improvement of the lives of the employees, commitment to education and training, and improvement in health care services.

 

(please email us your latest Environmental Report to research@corporategovernanceasia.com)

 

We would like the candidate to impart to us, as a corporate citizen, what they are doing in the following areas, how they are doing it and what they are trying to achieve:

 

1. Promotion  of green environment/clean energy

2. Promotion of community care

3. Promotion of art and culture

4. Promotion of education and training

5. Other CSR-related programmes (please email us your latest CSR Report to research@corporategovernanceasia.com)

 

Best Environmental Responsibility

 

Among the aspects of corporate social responsibility, the environment gets the biggest attention as it covers the world that we live in. The rising population and along with it, the rising exploitation of natural resources to meet the rising demand for production in many ways entail the destruction of the environment through irresponsible methods have raised concerns of what the world would be for the next generation.

 

It is for this reason that companies seek better ways to deal with the environment, acknowledging that its destruction would be catastrophic to mankind. Toward this end, there is a greater appreciation for renewable energy, to recycle and re-use. There is a greater recognition to balance between people, profit and the environment.
 

For Best Environmental Responsibility award, we seek from the candidates to:

 

1. State the company’s environmental policy/philosophy

 

2. Programmes to raise the awareness on how to build a greener environment for the future generation. How is the company joining in fighting climate change?

 

3. How do they strive to incorporate the concept of environmental protection into all the stages of implementation of their projects

 

 4. Initiatives covering solid waste management, energy and water conservation, and improving air quality

 

5.  How is the company imparting the best environmental responsibility practices to its suppliers, contractors, joint venture partners and the community at large

 

Best Corporate Communications Team

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This award goes to the best public relations team that helps their company achieve their goals in communicating with their investors, media and other stakeholders and the community they operate in. It is an important part of corporation to dessiminate the timely and transparent flow of information and disclosure between the company and their stakeholders, media and the community. The Corporate Communications team is an integral part of the corporation image building and providing the highest standard of adequate, accurate and efficient information out in the market arena.

 

Best Financial Public Relations in Asia

This award goes to a public relations firm that helps companies to achieve their goals in communicating with their investors. It is paramount for these firms to facilitate the timely and transparent flow of information and disclosure between their client and their investors. But in doing so, they must be cognizant of the principles of Corporate Governance Asia that adhere to the sense of integrity and right business ethics.  

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