Chinese firms post improving corporate governance: Survey

BEIJING — Chinese companies are doing better in upholding corporate governance standards and engaging with investors in a transparent and meaningful way, according to an industrial survey.

More Chinese mainland companies climbed to the top of the rankings of the 2017 All-Asia Executive Team Honored Companies, surveyed by international financial publication Institutional Investor, edging out a number of last year's winners from India, Southeast Asia and Australia.

A total of 3,074 buy-side individuals and 858 sell-side analysts participated in the survey, nominating 2,510 companies across 18 sectors, based on six core attributes: accessibility of senior executives, constructive conference calls and meetings, well-informed and authoritative investor relations, quality corporate documents, quick response to requests and timely financial disclosures.

Traditionally, India has dominated the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical sector, but this year three Chinese mainland companies, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group, China Medical System Holdings and 3SBio, clinched the top three spots as Most Honored Companies.

The top six companies in the internet sector all hailed from the Chinese mainland, led by Tencent Holdings, Alibaba, NetEase and Ctrip.com.

"The results are not surprising as China continues to open up its markets and Chinese companies' efforts to be transparent and trustworthy for domestic and international investors alike are being recognized," said Will Rowlands-Rees, Managing Director of Institutional Investor Research.

The surprising thing is that while Chinese firms can well meet local corporate governance and regulation standards, they also manage to come to the forth when it comes to international standards, he added.

Rowlands-Rees said that Chinese firms were eager to improve investor relations and suggested they should elevate understanding of the mindset of global investors and do more than relationship-oriented activities to attract them.

"To be a global company, you have to think globally," he said.

With the recent inclusion of China's A-shares in the MSCI Index and further opening up of the Chinese market, Asia provides increasing investment opportunities for global managers and Chinese companies are expected to reap the benefits, the survey pointed out.