Telecom Italia and Italy Claims First Place in Europe

Stockholm, Sweden (PRWEB) November 13, 2007 -- Telecom Italia takes its top position in after they surprised with a third place in the 2006. Second place goes to the Spanish oil producer Repsol and Italian UniCredit rounding out the top three best performers. The Dutch express company TNT, who won both in both 2005 and 2006, this year dropped to fourth place. Italian companies have improved their online communications significantly, but content presentation still remains a challenge.

In an astonishing turnaround, this year saw Italy shoot up the rankings - UniCredit and the energy company ENI were also in the top ten. Sweden, traditionally the leader since the original survey began there 11 years ago - has fallen outside the top ten for the first time.

EUROPE TOP 160

1, Telecom Italia, Italy

Score 89

2, Repsol-YPF, Spain

Score 88,75

3, Unicredito Italiano, Italy

Score 87,75

4, TNT, Netherlands

Score 87,25

5, Fortu, Finland

Score 85,5

6 ENI, Italy

Score 83,5

7, UBS, Switzerland

Score 83

8, Deutsche Post, Germany

Score 77,25

9, Swisscom, Switzerland

Score 77

10, Danske Bank, Denmark

Score 76,5

The full ranking is available at http://www.webranking.eu/widepage.aspx?id=1215&csref=prweb_euroranking_full

The average score of the 159 companies considered in the ranking increased by 1.7 points to 57.8 points this year, which indicates that the sites are of a good standard.

British companies have a high average score, but without top contenders. Highest UK-company on the list is Cadbury Schweppes with 69.25 points and came in on a 23rd place on the European list. "They have good content, in the right places, and it's easy to find. It is a rather original, enjoyable website, but they are the only company with a consumer oriented website to have won. They have an effective and world class website for their investors, with good features, for example good interactive shorting of the stock price, RSS, and it's easy to subscribe to information," says Marcus Eriksson, head of the survey at H&H.

German companies are good at financial reporting, a good navigation and at describing their business. Deutsche Post came in on the 8th place this year.

Eastern Europe is still lagging behind the rest, but it's likely that Russia, Turkey, Poland and Hungary will adopt features from the West and begin to gain ground. "The market for online communication is getting more and more harmonized and the eastern European companies can easily see and get inspired by western European best practice. All companies in our survey compete for international investor attention and capital so I think they will close the gap to their Western competitors in the years to come, says Marcus Eriksson

WHAT ABOUT THE SECTORS?

Traditionally, the heavy industries have always produced the best investor websites. Older, established companies are used to communicating with their target audience and simply switched to reaching them online, whereas the retail sector with companies like H&M and Carrefour are better at reaching their customers than their investors.

"A lot of the higher scorers are industrial companies", says Marcus Eriksson, "companies that have a technical business should use the internet and show they can handle the business. Many retail companies are good at communicating with their customers but not with their investors."

Nordic countries dominates

Finnish companies have by far the highest average score in Europe, that goes for both big and small companies. The utility company Fortum is in number five in Europe with a score of 85.5. Just five Finnish companies out of fifty score lower than 50 in Finland, with Ramirent lowest at 41.75.

Finnish companies are exceptionally good in the financial reporting and Corporate Governance. Part of the ambition may come from the necessity to communicate in English with investors both in the Nordic countries and globally, with a mother language with very limited international use.

Rank - Country - IR/Financial information average score

1 - Finland - 20,83

2 - Germany    Germany - 17,43

3 - Sweden - 16,73

4 - Norway - 16,24

5 - Denmark - 16,2

6 - Iceland - 15,85

7 - UK - 15,33

8 - Spain - 15,2

9 - France - 14,66

10 - Belgium - 14,58

Maximum score on IR/Financial Information is 31,5 and the average is 17,1

Rank - Country - Corporate governance average score

1 - Finland - 7,66

2 - Sweden - 6,99

3 - Norway - 5,6

4 - Germany - 5,25

5 - Denmark - 4,87

6 - Switzerland - 4,81

7 - UK - 4,74

8 - Belgium - 4,27

9 - Austria - 3,93

10 - Iceland - 3,93

Maximum score on Corporate Governance Information is 10,75 and the average is 5,3

"Sweden was an early adopter of the internet philosophy, with more than a third of the population owning shares, says Gabriel Thulin, Hallvarsson's senior partner and the initiator of the H&H Webranking". But this year they have been beaten by their old rivals, the Finns.

CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility

An area that have gained more attention this year is Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR. The total score possible in Webranking have increased with 30 per cent as an answer to the demand from the capital market. Again Finland holds the crown but here the UK comes in second.

The amount of capital invested in ethical companies has increased, which means investors and fund managers request this information more often. Even sellside analysts are now interested in CSR, because it is now so integral to any company's strategy that it is becoming a way of assessing risk. It is also far more measurable, which is what analysts need.

"UK based companies have a tradition of scoring high on CSR. We think the ethical index FTSE4Good together with the nature of the business of some of the largest companies have set the standard in the UK."

"Companies in sensitive sectors such as Oil, tobacco and alcohol have been early adopters in communicating their CSR activities. With the rise of campaigning on environmental and health issues, and the flourishing new world of blogging, these companies need to address what is said about them elsewhere as well", says Marcus Eriksson.

Corporate social responsibility is also high on the agenda, with the environment as a popular topic, and the top scorers in this category are companies with controversial products, such as the tobacco giant BAT (British American Tobacco) or oil companies such as Shell.

Rank - CSR - Country

1 - 3.06 - Finland

2 - 2.78 - UK

3 - 2.65 - Netherlands

4 - 2.64 - France

5 - 2.60 - Spain

6 - 2.58 - Norway

7 - 2.48 - Sweden

The total average score on the CSR section is 2.82

The evaluation is based on criteria which are updated every year to account for new trends in web communications as well as emerging user requirements. The research is based on a survey of analysts, investors and business journalists.

This year new criteria were introduced in sections such as corporate governance (i.e. whistle blowing) and copy editing (i.e. paragraph structure and clear labelling).

More information:

Marcus Eriksson

Head of H&H Webranking

Tel: +46 8 407 22 17

Mattias Lindquist

Media & Press

Tel: +46 8 407 22 33

Gabriel Thulin

Research

Tel + 46 8 407 22 27

About H&H Webranking

H&H Webranking is Europe's leading survey of corporate websites. It has been conducted annually since 1997. Each year approximately 700 websites are reviewed. Results are published in financial newspapers around Europe.

All the details of the ranking, research and the library of best practices are available to order through our website.

* H&H Webranking Company Report (http://www.webranking.eu/page.aspx?id=40&csref=prweb_euroranking_full)

* H&H Webranking Sector Report (http://www.webranking.eu/page.aspx?id=42&csref=prweb_euroranking_full)

* H&H Webranking OnDemand Company or Sector Report (http://www.webranking.eu/page.aspx?id=1214&csref=prweb_euroranking_full)

Please visit our website to order your copy today: Order H&H Webranking reports! (http://www.webranking.eu/xform.aspx?id=244&csref=prweb_euroranking_full)

About Hallvarsson & Halvarsson

Hallvarsson & Halvarsson AB (H&H) is the leading corporate communications and financial communications agency in the Nordics with approximately 100 consultants. Through it's H&H Webranking survey and Online Corporate Communications research and advisory services a leader in Europe with a significant number of Euro Top 500 companies as clients.

Services offered includes:

Corporate communications

* Public Affairs

* Crisis management

* CSR Corporate Social Responsibility

* Media Relations

* Corporate websites

* Web consulting

* H&H Webranking

* Financial reports

* Investor Relations

* Transactions

* Corporate Design

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