Corporate leaders around the world have been forced to make tough decisions as they attempt to lead their companies through the global coronavirus pandemic. These are the European executives that most impressed investors during the early days of the crisis, according to Institutional Investor’s 2020 All-Europe Executive Team.
C-suites at Nestle, Unilever, and Allianz were among the top-ranking executives in the sixteenth annual survey, which asks investors and analysts to rate the region’s CEOs, CFOs, investor relations professionals, and IR programs. Executives at these three firms ranked first in their sectors in all four categories, while also earning top marks for their analyst days and environmental, social, and governance practices.
The food producer, consumer goods company, and insurer were among 12 companies that swept their sectors across the four main categories in this year’s ranking...
To determine the members of Institutional Investor’s 2020 Europe Executive Team, we surveyed buy-side analysts, money managers and sell-side researchers at securities firms and financial institutions that cover the region, including those who cast and received votes in this year’s All-Europe Research Team survey. Survey results reflect the opinions from 1,182 investment professionals at 519 financial services firms.
We asked the participants to rate the chief executive officers, chief financial officers and investor relations professionals at the companies in their coverage universes. CEOs were rated on their credibility, leadership and communication. CFOs were rated on their ability in capital allocation, financial stewardship and communication. For the Investor Relations programs, companies were rated on the following attributes: productivity of NDR/road shows/conferences; conference calls; business and market knowledge; responsiveness; authority and credibility; timing of financial disclosure; consistency of financial disclosure; and granularity of financial disclosure. Additionally, voters also rated each company on the quality of investor days and ESG metrics.
All votes are weighted by rating (five being excellent; one being average) and attributes within each category were aggregated to create the CEO, CFO, IR Professional, IR Program, ESG and Investor Day rankings. The overall rankings in each of the categories are based on combined buy- and sell-side votes. Separate rosters (buy side, sell side) are also available for each award classification.
Using the same approach as above, a separate ranking was determined to create the 2020 Europe Executive Team Small and Mid-Cap Companies ranking, where we recognized companies with less than $10 billion in market capitalization.
Honored Companies are companies who achieved at least one published position. To earn the designation of Most Honored Company in the overall or small and mid-cap ranking, a company must achieve a weighted score of 12 or more points across the six categories in the combined, buy-side and sell-side rankings, wherein each first-place position is worth three points; second place, two; and third place, one.
To be eligible for inclusion on the 2020 Europe Executive Team, a company must be headquartered or have operational or executive headquarters in the region. We keep confidential the identities of the survey respondents to ensure their continuing cooperation. Voters must meet eligibility requirements, and winners must achieve a minimum vote count. All ballots are subject to review by our Research Operations Group.