Conventional business wisdom has it that communicating with shareholders is an important function that every company must do, and often this is the process that separates the good from the great.
One company where shareholder transparency is a priority is Pacific Basin Shipping, which won the award for Best New Entry in the 2008 Hong Kong Management Association Best Annual Reports Awards.
'At Pacific Basin, we continuously seek to find ways to communicate with stakeholders in the most effective, informative, accurate and timely manner,' said Klaus Nyborg, deputy chief executive at Pacific Basin Shipping. 'They are our guiding principles for putting together the annual report each year.'
A key driver behind the need for a clear, all-inclusive annual report is the nature of Pacific Basin Shipping's business. The company provides dry-bulk shipping services and logistics solutions to major international commodity groups and operates a large fleet of dry bulk vessels, primarily in the Asia-Pacific region. It employs 500 staff in 29 offices around the world and 2,400 staff at sea, and the company has also expanded into roll-on-roll-off vessels, towage, ports and port services businesses.
This creates not only a unique operating environment, but also an exposure to a number of risks that shareholders need to be aware of and manage.
'To increase the transparency of our business, we voluntarily included a section on risk management in our annual report in 2007 with the aim of informing stakeholders of the risks faced by the group in the course of business, and how they are addressed,' he said.
