NASDAQ OMX Baltic Exchanges Announce Companies with the Best Investor Relations in the Region

21.01.2011 TLN

Tallinn, January 20, 2011 – NASDAQ OMX Baltic, part of the NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NDAQ), tonight at a special live broadcast ceremony announced the winners of the Baltic Market Awards 2010, recognizing the best practices in the Baltic securities market. TEO LT was awarded for the Best Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries and SEB Bankas won the title of the Member of the Year.

TEO LT, awarded for the Best Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries scored 97 points out of 100. The runners-up for this award were health care company Grindeks and an IT company SAF Tehnika. Alongside with the Baltic Best Investor Relations award, the telecommunication company TEO LT was also recognized for the Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Vilnius and for the Best Annual Report in the Baltics.

Tallinna Vesi (water utilities) scored the highest among Estonian companies and received the award for the Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Tallinn.

Grindeks was recognized as the company with the Best Investor Relations Online and also won the award of the Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Riga.

SAF Tehnika was awarded for the Best Investor Relations among Small Cap Companies. The company is a long-standing in this category and has received the award for the fifth year in a row.

The Most Visible Improvement over the year in Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries was granted to paper manufacturer Grigiškės which improved its performance by 33%.

The Baltic Market Awards project, alongside with evaluating investor relations, identifies the best financial intermediary – a bank or a brokerage company trading in the Baltic securities – and awards it as Member of the Year. AB SEB bankas from Lithuania was recognized the Member of the Year taking into account its trading activity and active involvement in the market improvement and development projects.

“This year 25 companies have improved their total result and 30 companies exceeded Baltic average. In terms of corporate governance and investor relations, the Baltic listed companies are a big step ahead of the unlisted private sector and state-owned companies. The NASDAQ OMX Baltic Awards project brings a tangible contribution towards the improvement of the investor relations climate among the Baltic listed companies. Since the inception of the project in 2006 the average score for the IR level in the Baltics has shown an impressive 41% progress, the quality of the financial disclosure has improved by 48% and that of IR online augmented even by 73%. The conclusion is that companies are willing and able to invest into their investor relations. We believe that it pays off in the long run especially during the turbulent times, and will definitely not be left unnoticed by investors and market participants,” said Henrik Elfving, NASDAQ OMX Vice President / Baltic market.

The average score result in the Baltics rose to 74.0. Local markets improved their IR scores as well: Tallinn to 80.6, Riga to 70.3 and Vilnius to 72.5 points.

The improvement over the five years has been impressive:

Top 20 ranking Baltic companies in 2010:
1. TEO LT
2. Grindeks
3. SAF Tehnika
4. Tallinna Vesi
5. Latvijas Gāze
6. City Service AB
7. Invalda
8. Harju Elekter
9. Tallink Grupp
10. Baltika
11. Nordecon International
12. Sanitas
13. Olainfarm
14. Merko Ehitus
15. Lietuvos dujos
16.Grigiškės
17. Arco Vara
18. Latvijas Krajbanka
19. Apranga
20. Olympic Entertainment Group

About the Baltic Market Awards
The Baltic Market Awards was introduced in 2006. The purpose of the international Baltic Market Awards project is to highlight the best investor relations in financial and non-financial reporting and improve the overall standard of investor relations among listed companies, as well as provide them with individual evaluation and consultancy from stock exchange side. Each company is evaluated according to more than 120 criteria, including quality of the annual and periodical reports, disclosures, web page and analysts’ opinions. This ye ar 56 companies were evaluated.

Improvements in IR in the Baltics during past 5 years:

• The quality of IR in the Baltic market has improved by 41%.
• The quality of the financial reports of the Baltic listed companies has improved by 48% and that of investor relations online by 73%.
• The quality of IR among small cap companies is lower on average than in large companies, however, it is continuously improving and the gap is narrowing each year. In 2010, small cap companies scored on average only 4.6% less than the rest of companies.
• The average scores assigned to the bottom 10 companies have improved by 103%.

The members of the Evaluation Committee represent academics, investors, finance analysts, media representatives and representatives of the Baltic stock exchanges. The Evaluation Committee is chaired by Geoffrey Mazullo, corporate Governance expert and principal of Emerging Markets ESG. The company analysis was conducted by students from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, under the supervision of the evaluation committee and the NASDAQ OMX Baltic stock exchanges.

List of winners in 2010:

• The Best Investor Relations in the Baltic Countries – TEO LT
• The Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Tallinn – Tallinna Vesi
• The Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Riga – Grindeks
• The Best Investor Relations in NASDAQ OMX Vilnius – TEO LT
• The Best Investor Relations among Small Cap Companies – SAF Tehnika
• The Best Annual Report – TEO LT
• The Best Investor Relations Online – Grindeks
• The Most Visible Improvement over the Year – Grigiškės
• The Member of the Year in the Baltic countries – AB SEB bankas