Barclays, Cookson and Detica Grand Prix Winners at IR Magazine UK Awards

LONDON, June 29 /PRNewswire/ --

- UK Companies Singled Out for Communication Efforts in Close to 50 
Categories

Among the winning companies at the 17th IR Magazine UK Awards were
recognisable household names such as retailers Tesco and Marks & Spencer and
major high street banks Barclays, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland. These
companies and more picked up their awards on June 27 at a black-tie event in
London hosted by comedian Ed Byrne.

The IR Magazine Awards are the industry's longest-running and foremost
awards setting the benchmark for best practice in shareholder communications.
Awards distributed on the night include best investor relations officer, won
by Barclays' James Johnson in the FTSE 100 company category, and former
Cookson Group IRO Isabel Luetgendorf in the non-FTSE 100 category. The
banking sector showed its mettle with HBOS setting the industry standard for
best narrative reporting while Barclays carried off the award for best
communication for shareholder value creation. Royal Bank of Scotland took the
top prize for most progress in investor relations by a FTSE 100 company. A
full list of award-winning companies is attached.

Winners were determined by the votes of over 600 investors comprising
portfolio managers and buy-side and sell-side analysts covering UK equities.
One of the newer categories, best narrative reporting, was judged by a
special panel convened by category sponsor the Institute of Practitioners in
Advertising.

Mary Maude was commissioned by Cross Border, event producer, publisher of
IR magazine and host of the IR Magazine Awards worldwide, to conduct the
investor perception study for the awards. The study gathered votes for the
evening's winners and canvassed opinion on current issues in the IR
community. The perception study includes verbatim quotes on what 200 members
of the investment community think of the foremost factors in assessing a
CFO's reputation, the level of concern over increased private equity bids,
Project Turquoise and CEO blogs.

The awards were sponsored by 85four, Business Wire, Cantos, CTN
Communications, Greenaways, Hugin, IPREO, MacKenzie Partners, PrecisionIR, PR
Newswire, Radley Yeldar, Bank of New York, the Financial Times, the Institute
of Practitioners in Advertising, Thomson and VMA Group.

To obtain a press copy of the Investor Perception Study, UK 2007/2008,
please contact Claire Hunte on +44-20-7251-7520

Notes to Editors:

Cross Border Ltd

Cross Border Ltd (formerly Cross-Border Publishing) was founded in the UK
in 1993 and is the publisher in New York and London of IR magazine, the only
global publication focused on the interface between companies and their
investors. IR magazine hosts annual awards ceremonies in the US, the UK,
continental Europe, Canada, the Nordic region, Asia, Brazil and Ireland with
a combined annual attendance of around 8,000 investor relations
professionals. An IR conference was launched in India in February 2006. Cross
Border also publishes Corporate Secretary in North America and CorpComms in
the UK. The Cross Border contract division offers publishing and event
management to the financial and corporate communications sectors in Europe
and the Americas.

www.thecrossbordergroup.com

Awards

The IR Magazine Awards are an ongoing annual series of surveys and awards
conducted around the world by Cross Border. Winning companies are selected
through independent surveys of investment professionals and retail investors.
These investor perception studies together make up the world's largest survey
of its kind, annually canvassing over 5,000 portfolio managers, buy-side and
sell-side analysts and retail investors in more than 14 countries or regions.
Survey respondents nominate companies in specific categories and offer their
opinions on specific IR-related topics and trends.

IR MAGAZINE UK AWARDS 2007
    
    RESULTS
    
    Grand prix for best overall investor relations
    Winner: Barclays
    Runners-up: BG Group, BP, BT Group
    
    Grand prix for best investor relations by a FTSE 250 company
    Winner: Cookson
    Runners-up: ARM Holdings, Autonomy, LogicaCMG
    
    Grand prix for best smaller company investor relations
    Winner: Detica
    Runners-up: Anite Group, Rok, Sportingbet
    
    Best investor relations officer at a FTSE 100 company
    Winner: James Johnson and the team - Barclays
    Runners-up: Peter Hall & Fergus MacLeod - BP
    Phil Moses & Mark Smith - BT Group
    Richard O'Connor - The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
    
    Best investor relations officer at a non-FTSE 100 company 
    Winner: Isabel Luetgendorf - Cookson
    Runners-up: Bruce Beckloff - ARM Holdings
    John Denning - Carillion
    Aston Swift - Intertek Group
    Karen Keyes - LogicaCMG
    
    Best corporate literature by a FTSE 100 company    
    Winner: BP
    Runners-up: Aviva, Barclays, HSBC
    
    Best corporate literature by a non-FTSE 100 company
    Winner: Anite Group
    Runners-up: LogicaCMG, Rank Group
    
    Best narrative reporting
    Winner: HBOS
    Runners-up: Friends Provident, Land Securities Group, National Grid
    
    Best use of the internet for investor relations by a FTSE 100 company
    Winner: BP
    Runners-up: Barclays, Prudential, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
    
    Best use of the internet for investor relations by a non-FTSE 100 company
    Winner: LogicaCMG
    Runners-up: Cookson, Misys, Serco Group

    Most progress in investor relations by a FTSE 100 company
    Winner: The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
    Runners-up: Legal & General Group, Royal Dutch Shell, Standard Life
    
    Most progress in investor relations by a non-FTSE 100 company
    Winner: Cookson
    Runners-up: Intertek Group, Misys
    
    Best use of virtual conferencing
    Winner: J Sainsbury
    Runners-up: BP, BT Group, Vodafone Group
    
    Best results meetings and analyst briefings
    Winner: HBOS
    Runners-up: Barclays, BG Group, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
    
    Best communication of shareholder value creation
    Winner: Barclays
    Runners-up: BG Group, Imperial Tobacco Group, Tesco
    
    Best crisis management
    Winner: BP
    Runners-up: HSBC, Interserve, Sportingbet
    
    Best investor relations during a takeover
    Winner: Xstrata (acquired Falconbridge)
    Runners-up: LogicaCMG (acquired WM-data)
    Mitchells & Butlers (acquired pub restaurant sites from Whitbread July
    06, and defended takeover bids from Robert Tchenguiz April 06)
    Premier Foods (acquired RHM)
    
    Best disclosure practice
    Winner: Barclays
    Runners-up: Aviva, BP, HBOS
    
    Best corporate governance
    Winner: BP
    Runners-up: BG Group, BHP Billiton, The British Land Company, Imperial
    Tobacco Group
    
    Best practice of corporate social responsibility
    Winner: Marks & Spencer
    Runners-up: Northern Rock, Rio Tinto
    
    Best investor relations by a CEO at a FTSE 100 company
    Winner: Frank Chapman - BG Group
    Runners-up: Andy Hornby - HBOS
    Adam Applegarth - Northern Rock
    Ian Marchant - Scottish and Southern Energy
    
    Best investor relations by a CEO at a non-FTSE 100 company
    Winner: Tom Black - Detica
    Runners-up: Mike Lynch - Autonomy
    Charles Dunstone - The Carphone Warehouse
    Serco Group - Kevin Beeston & Christopher Hyman
    
    Best investor relations by a CFO at a FTSE 100 company
    Winner: Douglas Flint - HSBC
    Runners-up: Andrew Moss - Aviva
    Naguib Kheraj - Barclays
    Andrew Palmer - Legal & General Group
    
    Best investor relations by a CFO at a non-FTSE 100 company
    Winner: Tom Hickey - Tullow Oil
    Runners-up: Andrew Macfarlane - Rentokil Initial
    Andrew Jenner - Serco Group
    Gordon Stuart - Xansa
    
    Best investor relations for a new issue
    Winner: Scott Wilson
    Runners-up: Experian Group, Just Retirement
    
    Best investor relations by an AIM company
    Winner: Sportingbet
    Runners-up: Debt Free Direct Group, Peter Hambro Mining, Spice
    
    Best North American investor relations in the UK market
    Winners: GE, Procter & Gamble
    Runners-up: TELUS Corporation, Wal-Mart Stores
    
    Best UK company investor relations in the US market
    Winner: BP
    Runners-up: GlaxoSmithKline, Rio Tinto, SABMiller
    
    Best of sector winners
    
    Aerospace and defence: BAE Systems
    
    Banks/financial general: Barclays
    
    Chemicals: Imperial Chemical Industries
    
    Construction & materials: Hanson
    
    Food & beverages/tobacco: Diageo
    
    Healthcare equipment & services/pharmaceuticals & biotech:
    GlaxoSmithKline
    
    House, leisure and p[ersonal goods: Reckitt Benckiser
    
    Industrial engineering/industrial general/automobiles & parts: Cookson
    
    Insurance: Aviva
    
    Media: WPP
    
    Mining/basic resource: Rio Tinto
    
    Oil & gas: BP
    
    Real estate: The British Land Company
    
    Retailers: Tesco
    
    Support services: Wolseley
    
    Technology - hardware: ARM Holdings
    
    Technology - software & services/electronic & electrical equipment: Sage
    Group
    
    Telecommunications - BT Group
    
    Travel & leisure/industrial transportation: Rank Group
    
    Utilities: Scottish and Southern Energy



Contact:
    
    Claire Hunte
    Communications Director
    Tel: +44-20-7251-7520
    Mob: +44-7952-468467