Danish companies are strong in financial reporting and provide good press archives
By Freja Nilsson
In the Webranking 2021-2022, Danish companies have performed better than the European average and they have improved the average score by 2.7 points. The Danish companies are strong in financial reporting and provide good press archives, but need to include sustainability arguments in their investor proposals.
In this year's Webranking, we have ranked the 20 largest companies in Denmark. The Danish companies have performed above the European average, receiving an average score of 46.6, compared with the European average of 43.6 points. Since last year's Webranking the companies have improved their average score by 2.7 points. The companies are particularly strong in two areas: financial reporting and press archives.
Extensive financial figures and clear financial calendars
In terms of information related to financial reporting, Danish companies fulfil 55% of the reporting criteria, compared with 51% for the 500 largest companies in Europe.
Danish companies are better than the European average when it comes to presenting extensive financial figures in timelines on the website. Carlsberg for example, present financial key figures in both tables and graphs. The graphs provided are interactive, making it easy for the user to compare different financial figures. Carlsberg are also one of few companies that clearly present their financial KPIs in a table. They include tables of six different KPIs with a history of five years.
Additionally, the Danish companies include informative financial calendars that include upcoming days for financial reporting (100%) and they also include past events.
Chr. Hansen include a financial calendar that contains both future and past events until 23/11/2022 which is very helpful for the user since they get an opportunity to plan far ahead. The calendar also has colour codes for different kinds of events which makes it easier to sort the events according to what the user finds most relevant. The user can also choose to subscribe to upcoming events, the user gets the opportunity to choose to either subscribe to all events or to some categories of events.
Excellent press archives
Providing good press archives has been a strength for many years for Danish companies, presenting both regulatory and press releases in a good way. For example, 90% of Danish companies include regulatory releases in HTML in their press archives, compared with the European average of 76%. The companies also provide a long history of press releases in their archives, 85% of the companies include press releases from at least five years back.
Carlsberg provide a press release archive that contains relevant filtering options such as company news, financial news and sustainability news.
Sustainability arguments are often missing from the investor proposals
Like many other European companies, the biggest challenge for the Danish companies is the information provided on the Investor Relations pages of their websites.
Few companies include information about financial targets and the achievement of the financial targets. For example, none of the ranked Danish companies include a presentation of their financial goals or explain how they will reach them.
Danish companies also commonly miss out on including sustainability information in their argumentation for why someone should invest in their companies. Sustainability information is becoming increasingly important to investors in all aspects of a company and should be included in the investor proposal.
Chr. Hansen is one of two Danish companies that include information about why they are a sustainable investment choice. The other company that include this information are Coloplast. Chr. Hansen have a dedicated page containing detailed information about sustainable investing, where they for example include how they work towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals and explain their sustainability goals as well.
The Danish top performers
Like last year, Chr. Hansen are the Danish company that have performed best, receiving a total score of 62 points. Chr. Hansen do a very good job in the About us pages of their website, providing an extensive introduction to the company. For example, Chr. Hansen include an interactive timeline presenting the corporate history. They also provide a detailed explanation of their business model, including their organizational structure, positioning, and competitors.
Ørsted have taken Nordea's place as number two on the Danish list, improving their total score by 6.1 points. Ørsted have a detailed Careers section that includes an interactive step-by-step guide explaining their recruitment process. This makes the Careers section more interesting and it also gets easier for the potential jobseeker to get an overview of the recruitment process. Ørsted also perform well when it comes to sustainability information, they provide a clear sustainability strategy and include a presentation of sustainability data and targets, which not many Danish companies do.
Vestas Wind Systems keep their third placement from last year and the total score have remained almost unchanged except for a slight decrease of -0.3 points. Like Ørsted, Vestas Wind Systems include good sustainability content For example, they include a video presenting their approach to sustainability. Vestas Wind Systems also provide a clear explanation of their four key sustainability goals. The About us information provided in the "This is Vestas" pages is clearly divided into three main themes, "Our values", "Our management" and "Our History".
The best climber is Coloplastwho have increased their total score by 9.6 points, by for example providing better press and careers information.
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