History

The Best Annual Report Award was first introduced in 1974 to encourage listed companies to increase the extent and quality of voluntary disclosures in their annual reports. Prior to the SCA, this competition was jointly organised over the years by the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants, Singapore Exchange Limited, Singapore Institute of Directors, The Business Times, Securities Investors Association (Singapore), and Investment Management Association of Singapore.

The Best Managed Board Award, the first of its kind in the Asia Pacific region, was launched in 2003 to recognise and encourage enhanced corporate governance within companies.

The Best Investor Relations Award and Best CFO Award were added in 2005 to form the Singapore Corporate Awards. The Best CEO Award was added in 2006.

A special one-off Distinguished Contribution to Corporate Governance Award was given to Mr JY Pillay in 2015 for the tenth anniversary of the Singapore Corporate Awards.

A Special Recognition Award was launched in 2016 to recognise outstanding and exemplary conduct related to corporate governance not covered by the other awards.

The inaugural Best Risk Management Award is introduced in 2019 to recognise and raise awareness of the core and leading risk management practices required to support and sustain the strategic direction of companies, especially in this age of technology and disruption.

Objectives

The objectives of the Singapore Corporate Awards are to:

• Recognise and honour SGX-listed companies as well as individuals who, through their corporate practices, have helped to raise Singapore's corporate disclosure standards and corporate governance.
• Showcase SGX-listed companies and key decision makers who effectively implement and promote corporate disclosure standards and corporate governance in their companies.
• Create a prestigious corporate event for listed companies' Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Directors and substantial shareholders to network, socialise and share ideas and views on good corporate governance.

Awards

The Singapore Corporate Awards consists of six main awards:

• Best Managed Board
• Best Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
• Best Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
• Best Risk Management
• Best Investor Relations
• Best Annual Report

A special one-off Distinguished Contribution to Corporate Governance Award was given to Mr JY Pillay in 2015 for the tenth anniversary of the Singapore Corporate Awards.

A Special Recognition Award was launched in 2016 to recognise recent actions and practices of boards and companies that demonstrate outstanding and exemplary corporate governance.

In each of the main awards, there are three primary categories:

• Big Caps (SGX-listed companies with market capitalisation above S$1billion)
• Mid Caps (SGX-listed companies with market capitalisation between S$300 million and S$1 billion)
• Small Caps (SGX-listed companies with market capitalisation below S$300 million)

The Best Annual Report Award and the Best Investor Relations Award have two additional categories for First-Year Listed Companies, and REITs & Business Trusts.

For the individual awards (Best CFO and Best CEO), there is one winner in each category.

For the corporate awards (Best Annual Report, Best Investor Relations, Best Risk Management and Best Managed Board), there are three winners for Gold, Silver and Bronze in each category.

Gold winners for the corporate awards, and Best CFO and Best CEO winners observe a two-year moratorium following their awards.

In summary, the main awards and their categories are:

Organisations

The Awards are organised by the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants (ISCA), Singapore Institute of Directors (SID) and The Business Times (BT), supported by Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and Singapore Exchange (SGX).

The current award partners are:

• CGS, NUS Business School,
• Deloitte,
• EY,
• Heidrick & Struggles Inc,
• KPMG,  and
• PwC.

In addition, the supporting partner for media communication is Citigate Dewe Rogerson Singapore Pte Ltd.