Webranking 2005 – Italy Top80

Monday, December 05, 2005

Webranking 2005 – Italy Top80: Overall transparency continues to improve, but online corporate governance still falls short

Webranking 2005 – Italy Top80: Overall transparency continues to improve, but online corporate governance still falls short

Ras and Eni defended their positions as Italy’s best corporate websites, followed by newcomer Unicredit. A third of companies studied failed to disclose a minimum standard of financial information to international markets

Milan, 5 December 2005 – The results of Webranking 2005 Italy Top80 show insurance company Ras defending its top position as the Italian corporate website that best meets the information requirements of international financial markets, scoring 75.25 points out of a maximum 100. Energy company Eni followed with 70.5 and Unicredit, the international banking group, made a big leap from ninth position to grab the bronze medal with 63.75 points.

The ranking reveals many new developments. Telecom Italia, Banca Intesa, Snam Rete Gas and Fastweb all enter the top 10 for the first time. The five most-improved companies are, in order: CIR, Hera, ACEA, Credito Emiliano and Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

Now in its ninth consecutive year, the Webranking Survey – conducted by Hallvarsson & Halvarsson in cooperation with Italy’s Corriere della Sera and the Financial Times – is the most comprehensive survey of corporate online communications in Europe. The survey focuses on 82 of the largest listed Italian companies, using a checklist of 131 criteria to evaluate their English-language web presence. The list incorporates feedback from a questionnaire that asks 400 European financial analysts, investors and journalists to describe how they access corporate information online.

The Italian average score declined slightly to 34.7 points from last year’s 36.7. Note, however, that these results are not comparable on an absolute basis. The Webranking survey undergoes considerable modifications each year, to address the ever-changing demands of international markets as well as to reflect new trends in corporate and financial communications. This year, 24 new criteria were added and an additional 13 were modified. Against this backdrop, the decline in the Italian average is in fact less dramatic (-5%) than at the European level (-11%).

More information

Complete English press release (pdf)

Complete Italian press release (pdf)

The article from Il Corriere della Sera (jpg)

The article in the Financial Times (jpg)

For further information regarding Webranking™ Italy Top80 2005, please contact:

Joakim Lundquist, Project Manager for the Italian Webranking™ 2005 

+39 02 8969 1118