Vattenfall has best corporate website of government-owned companies

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Swedish utilities company Vattenfall has the best website among Swedish companies with government ownership. The listed companies TeliaSonera and Nordea Bank come second and third.

Best website of a company with government-ownership belongs to Vattenfall, with a score of 70.5 points, followed by TeliaSonera, 69.5 points and Nordea Bank, 63.75 points.

“Companies with government ownership score higher than listed Swedish companies in navigation, layout and accessibility”, says Marcus Eriksson, Project Manager of the survey. “They receive lower scores for financial information. On interactivity and corporate governance, the government-owned companies score less than listed companies.”

”Vattenfall is a European energy company with more than six million customers in the Nordic countries, Germany and Poland. The web is increasingly becoming more important as a meeting-point with our customers, investors, analysts, journalists and others interested in Vattenfall. Based on our new group Internet strategy, which is to give our websites a modern, useful and accessible design, we have surveyed our target groups’ wishes and needs. This ranking confirms that we have succeeded. The result is most flattering”, says Ann-Christine Larsson, Manager of External Web Communication.

The government has high ambitions for government-owned companies. They must publish interim and annual reports, as if they were listed. In its ownership policy, the government states that companies shall follow the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance. But the owner, the Swedish state, has few requirements on the companies’ websites other than publishing reports and following the Code. Communication on par with listed companies is also a way to inform citizens, potential buyers and others on the capital market.

Contacts for the survey:

Marcus Eriksson, Project Manager
+46-8 407 22 17, 0709 711 217

Gabriel Thulin, Head of Research
+46-8 407 22 27, +46 709 711 227

H&H Webranking is the leading survey of corporate websites, since 1997. Each year more than 500 corporate websites are scrutinized. The results are published in business media around Europe. In this ranking of government-owned Swedish companies the 21 largest companies with a government holding are included. They all had sales exceeding 2.5 bn Swedish kronor in 2005. Four of them are listed. In the survey 18 of the 125 criteria were excluded, since they are not relevant for non-listed companies. Thus the maximum possible score is 91.25. The survey follows the review protocol used for Webranking 2006. The protocol is based on a survey with investors, analysts and business journalists. Only information in Swedish has been reviewed. For more on Webranking, see www.webranking.nu