H&H Webranking Europe 500 published

Thursday, December 10, 2009

For the ninth consecutive year the H&H Webranking survey highlights European best practice standard and transparency in online communication. The energy giant Eni takes top position in the 2009 H&H Webranking Europe 500. Second place goes to UniCredit Group while Telecom Italia comes third. Never before has a single country dominated the top three positions. Finland passes Germany as the highest scoring country in Europe.

Eni wins for the second year in a row and hits the ceiling in the majority of the surveyed areas. Even though investors and analysts are becoming more cautious and demanding, they have managed to increase their score this year.

“Eni is the company that best fulfils the demands of the capital market right now. Information about risks, remuneration and future strategy are easily found on the site. What also makes Eni unique is that they manage to present a lot of information in a communicative way. Not an easy task for a company of that size”, says Marcus Eriksson, Head of the H&H Webranking survey.

Financial Transparency

It is evident that the turbulent market since Lehman has made investors more cautious and traditional IR and Corporate Governance criteria have gained importance. This year the capital market is demanding more information about risks, debts, credit ratings, remuneration (with figures), descriptions of future strategies, growth drivers and fulfilment of financial targets.

European Outlook

The total average score in H&H Webranking 2009 for all 800 included companies is 42.08 points (out of the possible 100). Last year the average score for 700 included companies was 50.3. The overall downward trend is due to a combination of harder screening and the greater inclusion of more and smaller companies.

There have been some changes among the top countries in this year’s survey. Improvements have mostly been made by Finnish and Swedish companies, allowing Finland to overtake the former leader, Germany, as the country with the highest average score. Finnish companies are in many cases “best practice“ in online transparency.

Swedish companies have managed to turn a downward trend and are now climbing a position. The rise of risk and IR criteria has favoured Swedish companies who are traditionally good communicators in these fields. Some Italian companies started to improve their websites a couple of years ago and climbed in the ranking. Telecom Italia’s win in 2007 gave a positive spin and became an inspiration and benchmark for others. The Italian eyewear manufacture Luxottica continues this trend and improves its score with a massive 35.25 points. The UK, with more companies included this year, takes a couple of steps back. The Netherlands on the other hand takes a step forward, ending up as number 3 in Europe.

Social Media

H&H Webranking also evaluates companies’ presence outside of the corporate website. Facebook, Wikipedia, YouTube and Twitter are some examples of channels that are tested in the survey. The strongest contenders in this area are companies from Switzerland and the UK.

More information:

H&H Webranking 2009 Europe 500 - Results