Next Change: Corporate Oscars for Listed Companies

by Chen Huifen, Sep 20 2005S'pore Corporate Awards to consolidate two existing awards. Publicly listed companies here will soon have their own version of the Oscars - with a red carpet and the highest accolades for the stars of corporate governance.

The Singapore Corporate Awards (SCA) will consolidate two existing awards - the Annual Report Award (ARA) and the Best Managed Board Award (BMBA) - and include two new awards. "The ARA has been around for more than 30 years," said The Business Times Editor Alvin Tay at the launch of the inaugural Singapore Corporate Awards yesterday. "And the BMBA was started about two years ago. "Both share some common partners: BT, the Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX). So we thought, instead of organising two separate dinners, why not combine the two awards and organise one bigger and more prestigious dinner event?" Bigger and better also means two new awards - for Best Investor Relations and the Chief Financial Officer of the Year. For these two new awards, nominations will be invited from across the corporate community - from accounting companies to consultancy firms, research analysts and media personnel.

A working committee will carry out checks and a panel of judges will then study the recommendations and decide the winners. "These awards recognise companies' as well as individuals' commitment to the highest levels of corporate management, governance and disclosure standards," said Singapore Corporate Awards chairwoman and executive vice-president of the Singapore Exchange, Yeo Lian Sim. "This commitment is evidenced by an effective board and management structure, policies and practices and the delivery of quality information to stakeholders in a timely manner." The Singapore Corporate Awards will be organised by BT in collaboration with UBS AG and supported by SGX.

Its other partners are SID, the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (ICPAS), Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS), Securities Investors Association Singapore (SIAS), and Citigate Dewe Rogerson i.MAGE. The organisers hinted that the awards may be extended to other corporate players in subsequent years. "Our aim is that over time, the Singapore Corporate Awards will be like the Oscars,... (where) you have awards for every segment of the movie industry, from best actors, producers, directors, to best cinematography and best score," BT's Mr Tay said. "Likewise for the Singapore Corporate Awards - it's our aim that it will eventually be an Awards for all key players of the corporate industry. So in the years to come, we could add, say, best audit committee, best company secretary, best analyst or analyst report, et cetera. This is our vision for the next five years or so."

All the four SCA awards will have three categories: one for mainboard-listed companies with market capitalisation of $500 million or more; another for remaining mainboard-listed firms; and a third for Sesdaq-listed firms. The ARA will have an added category for newly-listed companies with their maiden annual reports. As in previous years, the ARA and the BMBA will be overseen by ICPAS and SID respectively.

The Singapore Corporate Awards will be presented at a black-tie gala dinner in March next year. Down the track, organisers hope to include a corporate governance conference as well. UBS Singapore country head Christine Ong said: "I am confident the Singapore Corporate Awards will quickly become the industry benchmark for all champions of corporate governance, including chairmen, boards of directors, CFOs and investor relations practitioners - all of whom have the potential to raise the corporate governance bar both for the organisations which they represent and for Singapore as a whole." UBS is the event sponsor.