Batelco Group Named Best Company for Investor Relations in Bahrain

Manama, Bahrain: Batelco Group (Ticker: BATELCO), the leading telecom in Middle East, has recently announced that it has been voted as ‘Best Company for Investor Relations: Bahrain’ by the Middle East Investor Relations (ME-IR) Society for the second year running.

The honour was awarded to the Group at the ME-IR Society’s Annual Conference & Awards ceremony held this year in Abu Dhabi on 21 November 2011. The event aims to build further awareness of the importance of effective investor relations for fast growing Middle East companies and to recognize and award companies and professionals from across the region for their use of best practices as well as their ability to meet the levels of disclosure and communications required by leading local, regional and global investors.

The awards were based on the results of an independent global IR survey led by Thomson Reuters Extel and voted on by approximately 350 buy and sell-side investors globally. Respondents were asked to both nominate companies and assess the importance of some of the fundamental aspects of an effective IR programme. These included clarity and transparency, service and responsiveness, proactiveness at the CEO & CFO level, formal disclosures, quality of an IR team’s knowledge and general support. It was based on these criteria and its strong performance across each category that the Group was selected as the best company for IR among a group of leading listed Bahraini companies.

Commenting on the announcement, Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa, Group CEO, said: “We thank the ME-IR Society for this honour and we are pleased to be the recipient for the best company for IR in the Kingdom of Bahrain again this year. The work of the Society and its efforts to support the development, implementation and sharing of best practices in investor relations across the region is critical to the development of the region’s capital markets.”
“For its part, Batelco Group is committed to continuously looking at ways to further enhance its communications with the investment community and its levels of disclosure. Transparency is the cornerstone of a healthy company and we are delighted that the ongoing efforts of our team to perform at the highest levels have been recognised by the investment community and our peers, and that Batelco Group once again ranks among those companies in the region with the strongest standards of investor relations.”

Batelco Group, which is listed on the Bahrain Bourse, is the leading regional telecommunications company serving more than 11 million customers across its growing network, which includes its home market of Bahrain where it remains the Kingdom’s leading integrated communications provider, as well as overseas operations that include Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt and India.

This press release has been issued by Batelco Corporate Affairs department.
For further information, please contact Batelco Public Relations Office
Public.Relations@btc.com.bh / Fax +973 17611898

Picture credit: Middle East Investor Relations Society