Terna wins in Italy followed by Snam and Eni

By Arianna Evans, Lundquist srl

The 19^th Italian edition of the Webranking research, conducted together with our partner Lundquist, has revealed that transparency becomes even more essential in times of crisis. 

The evaluation of companies in this year’s edition took place at a particular moment. The Webranking protocol has reflected the stakeholder needs that emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic and demanded a strong and transparent communications ecosystem from all the companies included in the research. In the list of companies evaluated in Italy, we included 122 of the largest listed companies. 

Half of the companies present their strategy

The results from this year’s edition confirm a trend that has already emerged in previous years in Webranking – about half of the companies in the Italian sample present their strategy on their corporate website, with some level of detail, that caters to stakeholder needs. Just 23% go as far as presenting the concrete actions the company intends to take to meet the goals set out in their strategy.

In this area of the research Terna, Snam, Eni, Poste Italiane, and Acea are the best-performing companies. Leonardo also presents an interesting effort in their presentation of investor-related information. Mediobanca does a good job at integrating megatrends in the presentation of its strategy, providing its user-stakeholders with a broader perspective.

Italian companies and sustainability communications

With the crisis brought about by Covid-19 this year, sustainability is an important focal point. Out of the Italian sample, 69% present a sustainability strategy on their website, and almost half support this strategy with actions. An impressive 83% of companies present a Sustainability Report, a consistently growing trend in the past for years.

The best-performing companies in sustainability are Terna, Snam, Eni, Poste Italiane, and Fincantieri. We should also take note of Saras, a company that has presented a particularly forthcoming strategy, with a detailed action plan. A2A also impresses with their expression of key materiality themes and their progress in each area.

Top of the class

The top 5 best-performing companies this year are Terna, Snam, Eni, Generali, Poste Italiane. Another category to take note of this year are the Italian Best Climbers: Banca Ifis increased their score from last year’s edition by 34.4 points, followed by Illimity improving by 29.5 points, Iren improving by 20.4, Intesa Sanpaolo by 12 and Covivio by 10.5 points.

Similar to last year, the sectors that stood out the most for its transparency in communications are those that are highly regulated. At the peak of the ranking we find the telecommunications, utilities, and oil and gas sectors. Within these sectors, Terna, Eni, Generali, Poste Italiane, and Mediobanca stand out. Other excellent results can be seen amongst Snam and Hera Group.

See the full Italian results

What will the future of transparency hold?

As always, we close off a season of rankings excited to see what will come next. What trends will emerge in the course of this pandemic? How will stakeholder demands change in response to the crisis of insecurity around them? We look forward to finding out in the next edition of our research.

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