FT Europe 500 companies improve digital corporate communications

The 19th annual edition of Webranking by Comprend reveals that while Europe’s 500 largest multinationals are improving their online communication, they still have a way to go to adequately respond to capital market needs.

Covered by the FT’s Investors Chronicle, the research takes a closer look at how Europe’s largest companies are meeting the growing expectations of stakeholders in terms of transparency and dialogue through digital channels. Italian oil and gas giant ENI tops the ranking from the 497 firms considered with 89.1 points, followed by Italian telecoms company Telecom Italia with 86.6 points and Italian energy firm SNAM with 85.9 points.

Nordic countries continue to score high on transparency, with six Swedish and two Finnish companies making the top 15. Encouragingly, companies from a mix of European countries are showing clear improvements. Polish basic resources company, KGHM, Swiss telecoms company Swisscom and Italian insurance company Generali each improved by more than 17 points respectively.

European companies improving, yet 3 out of 4 companies still not passing the test

127 European companies analysed passes 50% of the total score (meaning they achieved more than 50 points out of a total of 100), considered the threshold for a site that meets the demands of stakeholders in terms of transparency and dialogue. This improvement is confirmed by the average score rising by 2.8 points to 41.9 points out of 100.

The failure rate, or those companies at the bottom of the ranking which do not meet the minimum content required by the market, decreased significantly from 29% to 16% this year. Despite this improvement, well over half of companies (59%) still achieve between 30-50 points, finding themselves in the “held back” category. This means that 3 out of 4 companies are not passing the test.

Sector performance: chemicals best, whilst retailers and banks remain the laggards of the pack

In line with last year, chemicals companies top the ranking with an average of 48.5 points, led by Bayer, DSM and BASF. A very strong performance is given by the insurance sector, which moves up seven places to take second spot at 45.7 points. Despite improving their overall score since last year, among the worst performing sectors we find the same culprits as last year. Retailers continue to perform poorly with 34.2 points, alongside banks who close below the average with 39.2 points. Financial services providers continue to rank as the worst performing sector with 32.5 points.

See the results of Europe's 500 largest companies here.

For further information regarding the research or to order your full report, please contact us:

Head of Research
Helena Wennergren, helena.wennergren@comprend.com

UK
Phil Marchant, phil.marchant@comprend.com

Spain, Portugal, France
Miguel Cruz de Oliveira, miguel.cruz.de.oliveira@comprend.com

Italy, Switzerland, Austria
Caroline Becker, caroline.becker@lundquist.it

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FT Europe 500 companies improve digital corporate communications