Winners at SC Awards 2008
Market Capitalisation of $500m or more
| Gold | Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd |
| Silver | The Ascott Group Ltd |
| Bronze | Singapore Exchange Ltd |
| Bronze | CapitaLand Ltd |
Market Capitalisation of less than $500m
| Gold | Multi-Chem Ltd |
| Silver | Courts (Singapore) Ltd |
| Bronze | Inter-Roller Engineering Ltd |
CATALIST (formerly known as SESDAQ)
| Gold | Interra Resources Ltd |
| Silver | China Enersave Ltd |
| Bronze | Lasseters International Holdings Ltd |
Newly Listed Company
| Gold | Banyan Tree Holdings Ltd |
| Silver | Thai Beverage Public Company Ltd |
| Bronze | Wilmar International Ltd |
Objectives
- To encourage excellent financial reporting presentation and a wider scope of disclosures beyond the minimum regulatory requirements that are in tandem with the needs of investors and other stakeholders such as employees, creditors and the general public
- To create awareness of the role of both mandatory accounting standards and voluntary practices issued by the Accounting Standards Council and The Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore
- The ARA was introduced to increase awareness through the encouragement of social responsibility reporting that business enterprises and organisations are responsible to the community both as employers and corporate citizens
The ARA also gives recognition to maiden annual reports of newly listed companies that show an excellent standard of disclosure. The Committee hopes that this will encourage newly listed companies to raise their annual report corporate disclosure standard.
Categories of Awards
Awards will be presented for the following categories of companies:
- Main Board listed companies with market capitalization of S$500 million and above
- Main Board listed companies with market capitalization below S$500 million
- Catalist listed companies
- Newly listed companies
For each of the above categories, the following awards will be presented:
- Best Annual Report Award - Gold
- Best Annual Report Award - Silver
- Best Annual Report Award - Bronze
Screening Process
Annual reports submitted for the competition go through a two-stage screening process. All annual reports are screened preliminarily by reference to the presence of key information stipulated in the ARA preliminary screening criteria.
The ARA panel of judges subsequently assesses each short-listed annual report against the ARA detailed marking criteria, taking into account the quality and presentation of information.
Preliminary Screening Criteria
The annual reports are first screened by reference to the presence of the following information:
- Promptness of publication
- Financial highlights commentary
- Discussion on cash flow and cash flow management, treasury instruments and financial risk management
- Value added information
- Productivity data
- Information on directors and senior management - CVs of key management
- Commentaries on half-year against full-year results for both financial years presented
- Discussion of key business risks and risk management strategies
- Presence of sensitivity analysis or Value-at-Risk (VAR) analysis
- Disclosure of industry and business specific measures of performance
- Earnings prospects by division and territory
- Employee welfare commentary
- Environmental responsibility commentary
- Community and other social responsibilities commentary
- Service/product quality and safety commentary
- Review of operations by division and territory
- Investor relations activities
- Disclosure of group and sustainability strategies
Detailed Marking
Annual reports shortlisted from the preliminary screening process are examined in detail for the quality of information contents by reference to the following:
Operating & Financial Review (OFR)
a. Company Overview, Objectives & Strategy
- Company overview and corporate structure
- Business objectives and management strategies for achieving them
- Industry and business-specific performance measures (financial and non financial key performance indicators)
- Chairman’s and CEO’s Statements
b. Operating Review
- Review of operations including industry specific information
- Discussions of key business risks and risk management strategies
- Meaningful indications of earnings prospects and corporate plans
c. Financial Review
- Financial review commentary
- Discussion on capital structure, treasury policies, capital management policies, financial risks management, cash flows and liquidity
- Discussion and explanation of critical accounting policies, estimates and judgements crucial to understanding the financial statements
- Specific commentaries - financial highlights statistics, trends, half year vs full year statistics
General
- Overall presentation including the effective use of charts and diagrams in setting out financial information
- Relevant information on personnel including information on management and disclosure on executive’s remuneration and information on employees
- Relevant value added and productivity ratios including the effective use of charts and diagrams
- Environmental and social responsibilities reporting including social policy statement
- Investor relations activities
- Board and Corporate Governance matters
