PETRANIX strengthens its strategic position!

We are expanding our consulting and design services with an offering of trainings and workshops. After having successfully launched our Power Lunch series last year, we will also start offering GRI trainings as an official GRI Training Partner next year. By doing this, we foster and share our expertise in Sustainability & Governance. We will also launch a new workshop/seminar series on Integrated Reporting based on our experience as an Integrated Reporting Specialist Review Partner for the IIRC. As for our tailored, company-specific workshops on annual reports, needless to say, they are still available for you any time. Together, we will tackle your specific questions, link them to thorough analysis and develop practical solutions for your company. 

The dates for these events will be announced in our next newsletter. Follow PETRANIX on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on our offering and events. We are already looking forward to meeting you in person at one of our next events. 

Successful Power Lunch on CEO Communication

Our most recent Power Lunch about the «Influence of CEO Communication on company valuation» was held in September. The event was based on the Master thesis of Nathanael Hausmann at the FHNW (Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz). Sibylle Bischofberger Frick, Senior Analyst for LifeScience at Zürcher Kantonalbank, complemented the results of the study with her longstanding experience as a financial analyst and contributed several interesting case studies from Swiss companies. The combination of academic analysis and practical experience led to very interesting insights and a vivid discussion. 

The study shows, that CEO communication indeed has an influence on company valuation. The most important topic is strategy. Because of the qualitative nature however, it can hardly be reflected directly in the quantitative valuation models of financial analysts. More information on the study is provided in our newly published Communication Special «The impact of CEO communication on company valuation» (in English). To request a copy, send us an email at: mail@petranix.com

SIX announces main points of focus for Corporate Governance reports 2017/2018

SIX Exchange Regulation has announced its main points of focus for the review of annual reports with regard to compliance with the Directive on Information relating to Corporate Governance (DCG). SIX Exchange Regulation will review a random sample of annual reports 2017/2018 with a focus on the following requirements: 

• Place of publication and clarity of any cross-references (Art. 6 DCG)
• Rules in the articles of association on the number of permitted activities of the board of directors and the executive committee (points 3.3 and 4.3 of the Annex to the DCG)
• Rules in the articles of association on compensation (points 5.2 of the Annex to the DCG)

The DCG requires issuers to publish information on Corporate Governance in a separate section of their annual report. References to other places are however permitted, if they are clear and precise. With respect to the rules in the articles of association, a precise reference to the respective rules can be sufficient as well. Every issuer reviewed will be informed about the result of the examination. If you have any questions about the practical implementation of the DCG, please don’t hesitate to contact us: mail@petranix.com

The complete Communiqués of SIX Exchange Regulation can be found here.

The revised Directive on Information relating to Corporate Governance (DCG), entered into force on 1 July 2017, can be found here. 

PETRANIX and Integrated Reporting

The International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) has published its own Integrated Annual Report 2016 end of July 2017. The report, 22 pages long, follows the Integrated Reporting Framework as could be expected and hence serves as a prime example for an integrated report. The financial report can be found in a separate publication of 12 pages. This integrated report not only takes into account the content elements such as the external environment, the business model, strategy and governance, but also the contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). A recent linkage document on Integrated Reporting and the SDG, published on 19 September 2017, can be downloaded here. 

Special emphasis was also given to stakeholder engagement, materiality and especially to the connectivity of information. The evaluation of IIRC’s performance shows that the expansion of the Integrated Reporting Framework continues moderately. While the increase in numbers of integrated reports has been most significant in Japan, Northern America has been almost stagnant. Speaking about the quality of the reports, there are however remarkable differences all over the world. The IIRC will continue to put its focus on partnerships and networks, in order to enhance the quality and quantity of Integrated Reporting. 

A well-established instrument to evaluate the quality of integrated reports is the Integrated Reporting Business Network Report Critique Project. Most of the integrated reports of Business Network participants are reviewed by two panels on an annual basis: on the one hand by the Integrated Reporting Specialist Review Panel, that evaluates the accordance with the Framework, and on the other hand by an Investor Panel, that provides feedback with respect to the relevance of information from an investor perspective. For the first time this year, PETRANIX was invited to be part of the selected Integrated Reporting Specialist Review Panel. We reviewed and evaluated integrated reports of companies from Germany, Switzerland and Australia. The final results of the analysis will be presented in October 2017 at the official IIRC Convention in Amsterdam followed by a publication of the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) in early 2018.

Would you like to have your annual or sustainability report reviewed with respect to Integrated Reporting or already wish to save your place in one of our workshops about implementing Integrated Reporting? Contact us at: mail@petranix.com 

PETRANIX intensifies collaboration with GRI

We have been a GRI Gold Community Member since 2010. After having supervised, designed and realised several sustainability reports according to the GRI guidelines, we now intensify our collaboration with the Global Reporting Initiative. In the course of the transition from G4 to the GRI Standards, we have joined the GRI Standards Pioneer Program in April 2017. Currently, we are completing the corresponding GRI trainings and will publish the first sustainability reports of our clients according to the GRI Standards in 2018. The Standards will be mandatory for all GRI reports published from 1 July 2018.

We have also decided to become a GRI Certified Training Partner, which will allow us to offer official GRI trainings. Currently, PETRANIX is a GRI Training Partner in the process of certification and, after completion of the certification process, we will be able to offer the GRI Certified Training Program starting 2018. The trainings are about fundamental knowledge and the practical implementation of the GRI Standards in sustainability reports, illustrated by selected case studies. 

If you would like to have your integrated or sustainability report reviewed with respect to GRI or already save your place in one of our GRI workshops, please contact us at: mail@petranix.com