Nguyễn Như Hùng, editor-in-chief of the Financial and Life e-magazine, speaks at the IR award cermony in HCM City on September 24. — Photo courtesy of the organisers

HCM CITY — The 2024 IR Best Practice Awards for listed companies with the best investor relations practices have been conferred.

Given away by the Việt Nam Association of Financial Executives, e-magazine Finance and Life and Vietstock in HCM City on September 24, the awards required the winners to go through a series of rigorous surveys and comprehensive quantitative assessments of their information disclosure activities.

Done over a 12-month period from May 1, 2023, the process scrutinised 708 listed companies.

The IR activities of these companies were evaluated using an established scoring system.

The assessment was done by 36 leading financial institutions, with additional input from the broader investment community.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Nguyễn Như Hùng, editor-in-chief of Financial and Life, said: "Through systematic and strategic practices, investor relations activities help shape the capital market, unlock corporate value and attract resources for sustainable development.

“Over the course of 14 annual events, the IR Awards have established thesmelves as a trusted platform, motivating and encouraging excellence in investor relations among top-performing companies in the stock market.

“The 'IR Best Practice Award' received by a listed company serves as a benchmark, validating sound corporate governance strategies and outstanding effectiveness in investor relations.

“This recognition comes from the investor community, fund management companies, and securities firms - the key players in the stock market's buying and selling activities."

HDBank is among the winners at the 2024 IR Best Practice Awards in the Individual Investors’ Best Choice category. — VNA/VNS Photo

The awards feature two main categories: Individual Investors’ Best Choice, and Financial Institutions’ Best Assessment. Both categories were further divided based on market capitalisation (large, medium and small cap), with the large cap then divided into financial and non-financial sectors.

Winners in the Individual Investors’ Best Choice category were Vietinbank, HDBank and MBB (financial large-cap), FPT, PNJ and Vinamilk (non-financial large cap), Viettel Construction, FPT Securities and TNG Investment and Trading Company (mid cap), and Nafoods and ST8 Holding JSC (small cap).

In the Financial Institutions’ Best Assessment category, the winners were ACB, MBB and SSI (financial large cap), FPT, MWG and Vinamilk (non-financial large cap), Viettel Construction, GEC and the PAN Group (mid cap) and Nafoods, Everpia JSC, and Guotai Junan Securities (Viêt Nam) (small cap).

The awards ceremony also featured an “IR View” seminar on greening the supply chain in which representatives of listed companies, asset management firms and securities companies shared practical stories about the green transformation journey, effective solutions for accessing high-quality capital and real-life experiences in managing the IR department.

According to a survey by the 2024 IR Best Practice Awards programme, some 424 out of 708 listed companies on the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh stock exchanges complied with information disclosure norms, 60 more than last year.

The ratio of listed companies fulfilling this obligation rose from 50 per cent last year to 60 per cent this year, the highest ever in the 14 years of the programme.

Nguyễn Thành Long, general director of HD Capital, said these numbers reflect remarkable progress, but there is still room for improvement.

While the overall picture has improved, there remains a gap in compliance between large and small enterprises, with the compliance rate among the former being much higher.

In addition, different industries also had varying levels of IR compliance, he said.

“Companies in sectors such as finance, banking and insurance tend to have better IR practices compared to some other sectors like real estate or construction,” he remarked.

Looking ahead he said good IR practices would contribute to improving Việt Nam’s secutities market and attract more ESG investment.