Stuart Ellen, Managing Director, Registration Services commented: “Along with the UK Stock Market Award earlier in the year and the Shares Award a couple of weeks back this gives us a clean sweep of the industry awards in 2014 – a fantastic achievement and one we are particularly proud of given our continuous hard work, both internally and in partnership with our clients.”
Voted for by the readers of Investors Chronicle and Financial Times, the winners of these awards are frequently referred to as a starting point for anyone looking for recommendations for financial services, a further endorsement of why Equiniti is the UK’s share registrar of choice.
Equiniti clients sweep the board with 6 wins at ifsProShare awards
BT, TSB, DS Smith, Royal Mail, Land Securities & Talk Talk took away top prizes from the annual ifsProShare Annual Awards gala dinner, which was sponsored by Equiniti Premier.
Held at the Grand Connaught Rooms London on 26 November, the industry renowned event was hosted by the journalist and broadcaster, Gyles Brandreth and saw a record number of entries in all categories, meaning the standard and breadth of competition was exceptionally high.
Entered by Equiniti, BT won in the categories Most Effective Use of Technology and Best Overall Performance in Fostering Employee Share Ownership (ESO) for companies with more than 15,000 employees. The latter was for their most recent saveshare maturity, a 5-year plan worth on maturity a grand total of more than £1.1 billion. They were particularly praised for their array of online tools, employee satisfaction and ongoing commitment.
Francis O’Mahony BT, Head of Share Plans and Share Registration commented: “This saveshare maturity is one of the most complex ever seen in the UK, with the most flexible online choices ever offered. I am really proud we came away with two such prestigious awards in recognition of our hard work.’
TSB won in the new category Best Employee Share Plan Outcome Following a Major Corporate Change whilst Royal Mail was also commended for its launch.
DS Smith won Best International Share Plan and was congratulated for their extensive communications and launch in multiple languages. Anne Steele, Deputy Company Secretary, DS Smith said: “The Sharesave Plan provided an opportunity to unite and engage all of our employees across the Group to share in the success of the company performance. We were thrilled to win such a prestigious award, which recognised the hard work of so many people.”
Talk Talk won in the category for Best Overall Performance in Fostering ESO for companies with 1000-15,000 employees, whilst Land Securities won for Most Effective Communications of ESO to companies with 1000-15,000 employees.
Phil Ainsley, Managing Director, Employee Services at Equiniti said: “It was an incredible evening and I am delighted that our partnership with clients continues to go from strength to strength. Congratulations go to all the winners and the staff involved with employee share schemes for our winning clients – I am extremely proud of the team that made this happen. The IfsProShare awards are a highlight of the Employee Services calendar and celebrate excellence in the employee share ownership industry. Equiniti is a long standing gold member of ifsProShare and plays an active role in supporting them.”
BT scoops special achievement award following the success of its saveshare programme
BT was victorious at the Employee Share Ownership Awards (ESOP), scooping the first ever Special Achievement for All Employee Share Ownership award. BT received the award following its saveshare programme paying out £1.1bn.
Representing BT at the awards ceremony in London was Anna Watch, Head of Executive Share Plans at BT and Vivienne Haynes, BT’s Director of Corporate Governance. “The award presented to BT was fantastic recognition of the level of employee participation in our saveshare schemes generally, and in particular, the scale and complexity of the maturity that took place on 01 August this year,” Anna says.
Equiniti has administered BT’s employee share schemes since 2010 and works closely with BT to consistently innovate their employee share plans approach.
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Pictured left to right: Gyles Brandreth - host, Francis O'Mahony & Andy Bennett - BT, Lady Mackintosh - ShareGift, Alan Scott - ifsProShare
Ezine edition: December 2014