Contact Information: Contact: Michele Bickford mbickford@iiresearchgroup.com (212) 224-3360
Institutional Investor Unveils Europe's Best CEOs
Money Managers Say CEOs of AXA, SABMiller Are Among Europe's Best
| Source: Institutional Investor
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - June 9, 2009) - In this challenging economic environment,
many European chief executives are taking a knife to their operations to
boost efficiency. But according to participants in Institutional Investor's 2009 ranking
of Europe's Best CEOs, the
region's best business leaders are also taking an active approach to the
crisis, stepping up their dialogues with shareholders and looking for new
growth areas.
The complete ranking can be found on our web site, www.iimagazine.com.
Henri de Castries, head of AXA and the top-ranked executive in the
Insurance sector, discovered anew the importance of maintaining close
contact with shareholders when his company's stock got pounded in March
after rival American International Group reported a record loss of $62
billion.
There was not much de Castries could do except pick up the phone or get on
a plane and talk to investors and analysts and emphasize that the
Paris-based AXA, Europe's second-largest insurer, had avoided the
derivatives that undermined AIG and that its underlying insurance business
was performing well.
"If we had forgotten it, the crisis is also showing us that communication
in hard times is essential -- communication with staff, with clients and
with investors," he says.
Ernest (Graham) Mackay, CEO of London-based brewer SABMiller and the No. 1
CEO in the Beverages sector, says he had to start looking after his
wholesalers around the world. Many were no longer able to get bank
financing because of the credit crunch, so Mackay decided to give them
loans. "If our products don't get to the market, that wholesaler goes out
of business," he says.
Institutional Investor's ranking
of Europe's Best CEOs is based on
the responses of more than 450 research analysts and portfolio managers at
some 290 leading money management firms with combined assets of $3.1
trillion in European equities.
Winners in 27 industry sectors are being announced over a two-day period,
beginning June 10, on our Web site, www.iimagazine.com.
For more information about this ranking, please contact Michele Bickford at
mbickford@iiresearchgroup.com or (212) 224-3360.