Hospitality group Tsogo Sun has been awarded top honours at auditing, accounting and advisory firm Nkonki’s Top 100 JSE Listed Companies Integrated Reporting Awards 2015, receiving recognition for its delivery of the most transparent, complete, consistent and concise yearly integrated report of all firms listed on the Johannesburg bourse.

“The only secret to our report is telling our story as honestly as we can about how we intend to run the business and create value,” a Tsogo Sun company spokesperson told attendees at the awards ceremony, at the JSE, on Wednesday.

Platinum miner Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) was named overall runner-up for its integrated reporting (IR) performance, beating Anglo American Platinum, in third place, and ArcelorMittal South Africa, in second place, to take the top spot in the Basic Materials sector.

Nkonki IR lead partner Thuto Masasa noted that Nkonki’s 2015 market survey measured the extent to which local firms, with a total market capitalisation of R11.3-trillion, had applied the guiding principles of and global best practice to IR.

The revenue base of surveyed firms amounted to R3.2-trillion, while the top 100 companies held an asset base worth R10.2-trillion.

Elaborating on the “key takeaways” of the report, she described an average score of 62% across all firms surveyed, but hastened to add that this could not be fairly measured against 2014’s average score of 69%, owing to the use of different standards in that year.

“We saw a good performance, in terms of the disclosure of the company’s strategic focus and in the consistency and comparability of reports.

“Excellent performances, which were considered those above 75%, were delivered by the strategic focus, consistency, reliability and completeness indicators,” Masasa remarked.

Average scores emerged in response to connectivity indicators, pointing to the fact that IRs remained disjointed and were often prepared in silos.

Also lagging, and receiving scores of between 55% and 75%, were shareholder relationships, materiality and content elements, she added.

The poorest performing indicators – considered those scored at below 55% – were fundamental concepts, conciseness and the “wow” factor.

“Despite performing well, the JSE’s top 100 companies still lag behind the global average in terms of IR . . . showing room for improvement,” said Masasa.

Winners in the divisional categories were Tsogo Sun, which also took home top honours in the consumer services sector, while Nedbank led the financial services industry for its IR practices and Life Healthcare came out tops in the healthcare division.

Nampak was named the most impressive integrated reporter in the industrials division, while Vodacom was considered the telecommunication industry’s star performer and Tongaat Hulett was awarded the top performing company accolade in the consumer goods markets.

Commenting on the evolution of IR across global markets, International Integrated Reporting Council markets director Sarah Grey had observed an increasing shift in corporate reporting away from silo-style reporting to IR.

“Around 79% of nonexecutive directors in South Africa believe IR has improved communications, while 92% of global companies had an increased appreciation of how IR added value to the company.

“On the stakeholder side, global investors are also of the opinion that management quality is affected by IR, while shareholders better understand a company’s strategy, through this approach,” she pointed out.

Advocacy group Integrated Reporting said IR applied principles and concepts that were focused on bringing greater cohesion and efficiency to the reporting process, adopting ‘integrated thinking’ as a way of breaking down internal silos and reducing duplication.

It improved the quality of information available to providers of financial capital to enable a more efficient and productive allocation of capital, while its focus on value creation, and the ‘capitals’ used by the business to create value over time, contributed towards a more financially stable global economy.