Financial Times - JKH Annual Report among best in the world

The John Keells Holdings (JKH), Ltd’s annual report for the year ending March 2006 has been ranked among the best in the world by Enterprise.Com, an organization that evaluates annual reports from around the world.

The survey carried out by Enterprise.Com is the only global survey of annual reports of listed companies, JKH said in a statement.

The JKH report has been ranked 80th out of 1,200 annual reports selected among leading listed companies worldwide. The JKH annual report has been ranked ahead of annual reports of companies such as General Electric (GE), Walt Disney, Unilever, J Sainsbury, IBM, BMW, Sony, Wal-Mart, NTT, Infosys Technologies, Boeing, Reliance Industries and Accenture.

Making a special comment on the JKH annual report in its 2006 publication of the Annual Report on Annual Reports, Enterprise.Com stated: “John Keells, the diversified holding group from Sri Lanka employs, calculates and charts ratios much better than many: besides some classics, capital productivity, leverage and margins are finely measured and smartly reported.

The MD&A (Management Discussion and Analysis) is clearly structured and introduced with investor pages filled with ratios”.

The JKH annual report is the only annual report from Sri Lanka to be ranked in the top 300 and is the highest ranked from South Asia.

How reports were scored Which criteria to mark reports?
*Report packaging - Volume - Layout
*Use of covers
*Theme, branding, identity, differentiation
* Key figures - Financial highlights
*Charts, ratios, performance metrics
* Profile - Year events - Major products
* Snapshot of business and geographic segments
*Executives statement(s): substance and style
*Strategic direction - outlook - Targets
* Review of operations, businesses and markets
*Segment and contribution analysis
* Stakeholder/social responsibility chapter or report
* Operating, social, environmental measures and statistics
*Financial review - Management discussion
*Medium-term performance - Growth factors and components
*Risk factors, analysis, mitigation and management
* Statements, accounting policies (IFRS, GAAP)
*Board and management details and changes
*Corporate governance - Committees (and reports)
* Executive compensation: policies and figures
* Shareholders and investor communication
*Earnings and dividends highlighted
*Share fundamentals reported and compared
* Read appeal - Reading facilities
* Visuals - Illustration - Photography

How reports were rated The sifting process

The reports went through a scoring process based on the 25 items listed above. This was conducted by Enterprise.Com report analysts.

The top 100 reports were then submitted to an independent rating panel.

The primary role of the rating panel is to double-check reports scored by Enterprise.Com and to help move from a very quantitative scoring to a more qualitative rating. As a result, some reports were upgraded while others were marked down, sometimes significantly.

Enterprise.Com’s survey is the only global survey on annual reports from listed companies.

The survey was created in 1996 (by a team of financial analysts, economists and communication specialists) and has kept on growing ever since (from 250 to 1,200 companies selected).

It is based on solid report assessment and scoring criteria –with a strong emphasis on financial and business content, without overlooking other key report aspects, JKH said.