Winners at SCA 2009
| Gold | Keppel Land Ltd |
| Silver | Sembcorp Industries Ltd |
| Bronze | SMRT Corporation Ltd |
| Gold | Petra Foods Ltd |
| Silver | CWT Ltd |
| Bronze | Mercator Lines Singapore Ltd |
| Gold | Qian Hu Corporation Ltd |
| Silver | OKP Holdings Ltd |
| Bronze | Pteris Global Ltd |
| Gold | CapitaMall Trust Management Limited |
| Silver | K-Reit Asia Management Limited |
| Bronze | CapitaRetail China Trust |
| Gold | First Resources Ltd |
| Silver | Mercator Lines Singapore 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.
The ARA introduced a marking category for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and business trusts with effect from 2009.
Categories of Awards
Awards will be presented for the following categories of companies:
- Listed companies with market capitalisation of S$1 billion and above
- Listed companies with market capitalisation from S$300 million to less than S$1 billion
- Listed companies with market capitalisation below S$300 million
- Newly listed companies
- REITs and business trusts
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:
- Financial highlights commentary
- Discussion on corporate liquidity, capital management and financial risk management
- 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 portfolios, division and territory
- Portfolios analysis
- Employee welfare commentary
- Disclosure on organisation / trust structure
- Environmental responsibility commentary
- Community and other social responsibilities commentary
- Service/product quality and safety commentary
- Investor relations activities
- Disclosure of group and strategic directions
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 or market 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
