The ARMZ Uranium Holding Awarded for Promoting Sustainable Development Principles in their Annual Statements

On November 24, the 14^th Annual Practical Conference “Annual Statement: Leadership Experience and New Standards” was held by the RAEX rating agency (RAEX-Analytics). The conference included the presentation of the study results and the rating of annual statement for 2016, as well as award ceremony for companies that won the annual report contest.

The main topic of the discussion was the trends in the annual financial statements for 2016, the use of international and national standards in the preparation of statements, the main trends in the design, as well as the possible presentation of information in an interactive version of annual statements.

Viktoriya Dolina, the Head for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and non-financial reporting at the Atomredmedzoloto, JSC, shared their experience in preparing annual statements: “Preparing an annual statement is a year-round cycle. This autumn, we will start a survey among stakeholders and monitoring the report preparation context, i.e. we are analyzing the events that took place in the company. We try to suggest a priority topic in our questionnaire: what is the main idea of our statement? Since January, we have been forming the concept, as well as collecting and processing information. The process involves communication with stakeholders, including three dialogues with interested parties. Upon approval of the statement, approximately in May, we will start its makeup, and in late June we publish the statement on the website. And then, we will launch the work on its promotion”.

“This year, the nomination ‘The best annual report in the financial sector’ was awarded to the Sberbank, PJSC’s statement, and in the non-financial sector, to that of the Rosatom State Corporation, as Dmitry Kabalinky, the Deputy General Director of RAEX (RAEX-Analytics) commented on. – We awarded the prize for the contribution in promoting the sustainable development principles in the annual statements to Atomredmedzoloto, JSC; the prize in the nomination ‘Comprehensive Disclosure of Information about the Company’s Development Strategy’ went to Moscow United Electric Grid Company, PJSC.”

The RAEX rating agency (RAEX-Analytics) published the study “The Review of Annual Reports for 2016: Anticipating the Growth of Public Non-Financial Reporting”. The participants in the current rating of annual statements, summing up the results of 2016, have been companies from Russia and Kazakhstan. The study was based on annual reports of 99 companies. The statements of non-financial (74) and financial (19) sectors have been submitted, as well as those of institutional organizations (6), first singled out in a separate group.

As shown by the analysis of the rating of annual statements of Russian companies, in 2017 they continued to master the G4 GRI standard (the percentage of companies who declared compliance with this standard in their statements has increased from 38 to 40). The strongest points in the annual reports presented in the current rating were the sections on the achieved strategic results, production and financial activities and HR management; the weakest points were business models, innovations and logistics. In the current rating, institutional organizations have been first singled out in a separate group.

After the Government’s approval of the Concept for the Development of Public Non-Financial Reporting, the range of companies and organizations that prepare annual statements will gradually expand in our country in the next five to seven years, and there will be prerequisites for creating national standards in this area.

Among the most fully disclosed sections in the ARMZ statement, the jury noted those devoted to procurements, working with suppliers, as well as the the results of work by segments in comparison with competitors, and the forecast.

“The annual statement preparation quality has increased significantly, Dmitry Kabalinky, the Deputy General Director of RAEX (RAEX-Analytics) commented on, presenting the results of the annual rating of statements. – The share of statements rated 4 and 5 stars exceeded 60%. The strong points of annual statements are traditional: companies have learned to reflect their work with the human resources and the results achieved. They have coped worse with disclosing the information about innovations, logistics, and business models. For the first time, the statements of institutional organizations have been singled out in a separate group”.