URC, MPIC, D&L among Asia’s “most honored” companies

Regional industrial powerhouse Universal Robina Corp., infrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and food ingredients and chemical producer D&L Industries are among emerging Asia’s “most honored” companies this year, based on a survey by New York-based publication Institutional Investor.

Based on its 2017 All-Asia Executive Team survey, Institutional Investor also hailed D&L chief executive officer Alvin Lao as the “Best CEO” in the Philippines.

Alvin Lao

“This is a wonderful achievement for the entire team…which would not have been possible without the support of D&L’s management. We have the utmost respect for our minority shareholders and will continue our efforts to maintain an IR (investor relations) program that is engaging, informative and transparent,” Lao said in a press statement on Tuesday.

MPIC’s David Nicol was honored as the “Best CFO (chief finance officer) while URC’s Michael Liwanag was hailed as “Best IR (Investor Relations) professional.”

MPIC was cited as the best company for investor relations.

Over 2,500 Asian companies were nominated for outstanding corporate leadership and investor relations. This year’s survey results reflected the opinions of more than 3,900 investment professionals at 980 financial services firms. This includes buy-side analysts, money managers and sell-side researchers at securities firms and financial institutions that cover Asia.

Respondents from the buy side manage around $1.5 trillion in Asian equities.

URC, MPIC and D&L were among the 88 companies honored by Institutional Investor.

Companies were ranked based on various aspect of investor relations and corporate governance. These include having accessible senior executives, providing timely and appropriate financial disclosure, having a well informed and empowered IR team, responding quickly and thoroughly to requests, hosting the most constructive conference calls and meetings, and providing the highest quality corporate document and investor kit materials.

Institutional Investor is a leading international business-to-business publisher, focused primarily on
international finance.