Black Sun clients, Xstrata and African Barrick Gold emerged victorious this week from the Investor Relations Society Best Practice Awards, which took place on Tuesday evening at a lavish black-tie affair in Tower Bridge, London. Mining giant, Xstrata had a double victory on the night winning the ‘award for the most effective overall Annual Report, (printed and online)’, aswell as the award for ‘best communication of corporate responsibility in the Annual Report’ for the second year running. 

African Barrick Gold was also successful on the night winning the award for ‘best communication of governance and risk in the Annual Report’ which marked the company’s very first award for their reporting. Andrew Wray, Head of Corporate Development & Investor Relations for ABG commented ‘To receive this recognition in our second year as a listed company is a great achievement and is testament to the support and guidance Black Sun has given us. We are in an industry where it is critical that we have strong governance and risk controls and our stakeholders expect us to communicate this effectively. With many competing demands for our small internal team, Black Sun have been invaluable in ensuring we use our time effectively and in delivering a high quality product.'

This year's event was once again held at the fantastic Pavilion at the Tower of London and the Rt Hon Michael Portillo, former secretary of State for Defense, kept all the guests highly amused with tales of his political and broadcasting career. Black Sun thoroughly enjoyed the evening and were delighted to be joined by key team members from Xstrata, ABG and BAE Systems who were also amongst the nominees, to celebrate the occasion. The IR Society Best Practice Awards encourage the adoption of best practice by recognising those companies and individuals that lead the way in the practice of investor communication. It is hoped that the winners and other shortlisted companies will provide a benchmark against which other companies can measure their own IR activities. Black Sun have long since been an advocate and sponsor of these awards and are incredibility proud of both client’s achievements this year.

With this awards season slowly coming to a close, the IR Society Awards marked a fantastic end to a successful reporting season for our clients and we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the teams involved for their hard work and dedication.

Click here to view full list of winners at this year's IR Society Best Practice Awards