Investors find Chinese and Hong Kong corporates delivering excellence in investor relations programs with increased focus on corporate governance across Asia in Institutional Investor's 2018 All-Asia Executive Team Rankings

Geely Automobile Holdings, Kerry Logistics Network, Ping An Insurance and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp ranked first in all categoriesin their sectors

HONG KONG, CHINA - Media OutReach - June 26, 2018 -Geely Automobile Holdings and Kerry Logistics Network, clinched the first-place slots in all four categories of Best CEO, Best CFO, Best Investor Relations Professional and Best IR Company rankings in their respective sectors of Autos & Auto Parts and Transportation in the 2018 All-Asia Executive Team survey announced today by Institutional Investor.  

Only four companies in Asia accomplished this feat. The other two companies are Ping An Insurance (Group) Co., a personal financial services provider in the Insurance sector, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the world's largest semiconductor foundry. Last year, only one company captured first place in every single category, underscoring the intense competition for the mindshare of both buy-side investors and sell-side analysts.

With this year's record survey participation, Hong Kong and China listed companies have extended their lead in the minds of global investors for the second year in a row. Yet, the concentration of votes to the leading companies is more apparent with a decline of Honored Companies from 118 to 101, impacting particularly the Consumer / Staples and Property sectors.

A few key emerging trends are identified from the survey:

1.    China remains on top: Mainland Chinese companies have once again dominated the rankings, edging out a number of past winners from India and Australia. Chinese companies ascended, with ANTA Sports Products and Midea Group earning the highest weighted scores in the Consumer / Discretionary sector.

2.    The number of Indian companies has fallen to 12 from 27.  For the first time, Indian companies are not ranked in the Healthcare & Pharmaceutical sector -- a sector they dominated before 2017.

3.    Chinese firms will, however, need to improve their commitment to corporate governance and ESG to match the higher global standard: For the first time, Institutional Investor is awarding companies that deliver the best corporate governance and ESG insights in their sector. However, despite a strong overall performance of Chinese companies, only 30% of the top corporate governance and ESG insights leaders in the table are from China.

4.    Accessibility of senior executives: This continues to be valued by investors as evidenced by the strong performance of DBS Bank's climb to top spot in the Banks sector for the first time, a sector which has previously been dominated by Chinese and Indian banks. The strong accessibility of its senior executives in conference calls and meetings distinguished the bank from the pack.

Institutional Investor Research's Head of Asia, Cara Eio, said, "With the continued commitment to open the Chinese capital markets to outside investors from the government, and an ongoing commitment from companies to deliver transparency and accessibility to investors, we've seen another leap ahead in the minds of the investment community for Chinese listed companies, outstripping their rivals across the region. Additionally, we saw some good success stories from Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines and Thailand, which materially moved the needle year-on-year in the eyes of investors. This demonstrates that good governance and focused investor engagement can cut through the continued challenges that the investment community has around regulation and an uncertain geo-political outlook as they search for alpha."

Every year, Institutional Investor asks buy-side analysts, money managers and sell-side researchers at securities firms and financial institutions that cover the region to identify up to four companies that excel in investor relations in four categories -- Best CEO, Best CFO, Best IR Professional and Best IR Company.

This year a record total of 3,538 buy-side individuals and 982 sell-side analysts participated in the 2018 All-Asia Executive Team Honored Companies survey, representing 15.1% and 14.5% year-on-year growth respectively. Buy-side participation rose 28.5% while sell-side participation soared 42.7%. Participating buy-side voters together manage US$1.6 trillion in Asian equities, excluding Japan. The title of "Honored Company" goes to businesses earning a top-three position in one of the four categories, while "Most Honored Company" goes to companies that secure two or more top-three appearances.

Of the 18 sectors, Chinese companies dominated across half, in particular leading in the Internet sector. However, they fell in the Banks sector where Singaporean and Indian banks have gained ground, taking the lead. Chinese companies also continue to dominate in the Consumer / Discretionary and Basic Materials sectors. Hong Kong companies were spread out amongst the sectors but had good representation in the Telecommunications sector.

This year, 20 Hong Kong companies, along with another 100 companies across Asia, are celebrated as honored companies for their outstanding corporate governance standards and transparent, meaningful engagement with investors.

There are a number of Hong Kong companies which showed significant improvement in 2018, including China Gas Holdings and Geely Automobile Holdings. Regionally, the number of Indian companies declined more than 50% in the Honored Company list with 3 of the 12 Indian companies being recognized in the Autos & Auto Parts sector.

Daniel Dai, Vice President (International Business), Geely Automobile Holdings said, "It is our honor to learn that the portfolio managers and analysts from the capital market have cast a vote again this year in favor of the management team's achievements of Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. In the coming year, we will keep working hard with our company's traditions, to learn, to respect, and to be grateful."

William Ma, Group Managing Director of Kerry Logistics, attributed the company's Most Honored Company award in the Transportation sector to its ongoing focus on fair, open and timely disclosure of crucial financial information in its daily course of communication with investors. "In driving proactive and high-quality dialogue with the investment community, we closely follow changing global regulatory requirements and attach great importance to investors' feedback and suggestions to achieve continuous improvement with the goal to facilitate understanding of Kerry Logistics' strong fundamentals and promising prospects and to unleash our corporate value for shareholders," remarked Mr. Ma.  Kerry Logistics has been voted the Most Honored Company in the Transportation sector for the third year in a row.

The 2,368 companies nominated across 18 sectors this year were rated on ten core areas, including 'senior executives are accessible'; 'IR team is well informed and empowered to speak authoritatively on the company's behalf'; timely and appropriate level of financial disclosure; 'responds quickly and thoroughly to requests'; most constructive conference calls; high quality of meetings through road shows/reversed road shows/conferences; high quality of corporate documents and investor kit materials; commitment to corporate governance; 'delivers insight and useful reports on ESG/SRI metrics'; and website quality.

Notable Most Honored Company winners on this year's All-Asia Executive Team include:

For the full list of published winners, please visit www.institutionalinvestor.com/research

To share your winning position in the 2018 All-Asia Executive Team ranking in your website content, advertisements, communications, marketing collateral, and more, please contact Commercial Lead, Carvin Lee, at carvin.lee@institutionalinvestor.com.

About Institutional Investor

For 51 years Institutional Investor has consistently distinguished itself among the world's foremost media companies with groundbreaking journalism and incisive writing that provides essential intelligence for a global audience. In addition, Institutional Investor offers highly-respected proprietary benchmark research and rankings on buy-side and sell-side research, hedge funds, corporates, fixed income and asset management. For more information visit institutionalinvestor.com.

APPENDIX

2018 All-Asia Executive Team Rankings

 Quotes from Winners

Dr. Jing Lou, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, 3SBio

 "We are very honored to be recognized for this award. This really has been a team effort with our entire executive leadership team actively engaging with the investment community through conference calls, road-shows and factory visits. Many members of the team have been working for 3SBio for more than a decade, understand 3SBio's strategy and goals, and are empowered to provide the investment community with insightful, timely and fair disclosure. Again, thank you and congratulations to the other award winners."

Mitch New, General Counsel, AIA Group

"Our Board of Directors is committed to the highest standards of governance in their oversight of the Group. In that context, we believe that effective governance is essential to the long-term success and sustainability of our business. Our approach is underpinned by our Operating Philosophy of 'Doing the Right Things, in the Right Way, with the Right People... confident that the Right Results will come.' This applies across all of our operations and includes our governance practices both at the Group level and in respect of all of our operating entities. It is part of the foundation on which we continue to build our business."

Suki Wong, Head of Investor Relations, ANTA Sports

"ANTA Sports is glad to be awarded and continue to rank top in this year's survey. As always, the management is committed to enhance the IR efforts and deliver fair, open, prompt two-way communication with the investor community."

Sophia Cheng, Chief Investment Officer, Cathay Financial Holdings

"Investors are important stakeholders and Investor Relations is an important bridge between the Company and the investment world. Respecting investor needs by providing efficient and proactive assistance is essential, while information consistency, strong ESG performance and accessible management team with industry insights secure company credibility. The Cathay IR team really appreciates investors' recognition and will continue to commit to quality services."

Frank Li, General Manager of Capital Management Centre, Corporate Finance & Investor Relations, China Gas Holdings Limited

"It's our great honor to be named and receive consecutively the most influential executive ranking. China Gas is committed to maintaining high standards and best practices for investor relations and believes that good corporate government is essential for the sustainable development of the company. The Board and executives place considerable importance on timely and accurate communication with investors and recognize the significance of transparency. IR teams participate in the daily operations of the company and have first-hand knowledge of business, while CEOs, CFOs, and IROs try best to meet investors and take part in global results NDRs. We meet more than 500 investors and attend more than 20 investor conferences or strategic corporate days every year. We also organize site visits and host very constructive conference calls."

Vincent Tse, Investor Relations Director, China Resources Beer

"We appreciate Institutional Investor's platform and its effort in promoting investor relations. We would also like to express our sincere thanks to those investment community members who went through the trouble to vote for us. Institutional Investor's rankings represent the market's recognition of our company's IR efforts. We appreciate our senior management's trust and empowerment to speak authoritatively on the company's behalf. We have refined our disclosures over time, trying to strike a balance between commercial secrets and transparency. We try to respond quickly to requests and host constructive conference calls. That said, we support the stock exchange's perseverance in improving the quality and disclosure compliance. China Resources Beer (Holdings) Company Limited is committed to corporate governance. Our website provides thorough and easy-to-access investor information."

"Last but not least, we want to express our gratitude to the senior management and board of directors who understand the importance of IR. IR is a role that needs support from the senior management and directors to facilitate the communication with the investment community. Without help from the senior management, good IR cannot be conducted and II rankings cannot be achieved."

Wang Xiaochu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, China Unicom

"The awards are very encouraging to us! We are grateful to the investors for their kind recognition of our efforts on good corporate governance and transparency. Adhering to the development philosophies of "innovation, coordination, eco-friendliness, openness and sharing," we strive to enhance integrated economic, social and environmental value, so as to facilitate sustainable development. In 2017, the Company successfully implemented mixed-ownership reform and introduced leading Internet companies like Tencent, Baidu, Jingdong and Alibaba etc. as its strategic investors. We shall vigorously accelerate Internet-oriented operation and forcefully push ahead synergetic business cooperation with the strategic investors to start a new era of innovative development."

Eddie Chak, Executive Director and Financial Controller, CSPC Pharmaceutical

"It's been a great honor to receive such high recognition in Institutional Investor 2018 All Asia Executive Team Health Care & Pharmaceuticals rankings, with first place rankings in Best CEO and IR Programs, and 2nd place rankings in Best CFO and IR Professionals. The awards mean more than mere recognitions of our past efforts, but encouragement for our future commitment to the pursuit of excellence."

"The credit goes to an insightful leader, a dedicated management and a professional investor relations team who are passionate about their work. Throughout the year, we endeavored to establish a transparent and trustworthy environment with the capital market. We truly believe that the core to our past success is to treat the stakeholders with respect, and deliver what they expect; in return, we receive the recognition, which reflects our faith in a better future for Chinese healthcare with our determination to develop innovative drugs and deliver returns to our shareholders.

"Like a circle, the pursuit of excellence has no end. We will stick to our philosophy of "All for Good Medicine, All for Mankind's Health" and continue to make a full effort to deliver true value in the future."

Robert Drake, Group Chief Financial Officer, Galaxy Entertainment Group

"We strive to exceed our customer's expectations by delivering our renowned World Class Asian Heart service by every member of our dedicated team. Our commitment to execution across these core fundamentals and business principles has translated into strong financial performance where we have firmly established ourselves as a leading brand in the global integrated resort market. With respect to investor relations, we pride ourselves on timely, accurate and transparent communications with investors - even more so when times are challenging. We look forward to strengthening all of our relationships including those with the financial community."

Lee Yin Yee, B.B.S., Chairman, Xinyi Glass

"We are deeply honored to be included in the rankings, which clearly indicate the wide recognition of our solid corporate governance and our dedicated execution and efforts made over the years to maintain effective communication with the international market and institutional investors."