TORONTO, Feb. 25 /CNW/ - Last night at its annual gala affair, IR magazine, in association with The Globe and Mail and Report on Business TV, honoured Canadian executives and companies that have exhibited the highest standard of investor relations as judged by the Canadian investment community.

For the second year running, EnCana won the CIRI grand prix for best overall investor relations in the mega-cap division (over $10 bn market cap). EnCana's CEO, Gwyn Morgan, took home top honours in the category of best investor relations by a CEO. The winners of the awards for best investor relations officers in the mega, large, mid and small-cap divisions are, respectively: Betty-Ann Heggie, PotashCorp; Janet Craig, ATI Technologies; Greg Kist, Progress Energy; and Stéphane Milot, Transcontinental. Manulife Financial won the award and accolades for best corporate governance.

Winners were selected in 18 categories that touch on all aspects of investor relations (see below). The winners were determined through an independent survey carried out by Value Gap Advisors of more than 500 Canadian portfolio managers, buy-side analysts and sell-side analysts through contacts supplied by Thomson Financial and over 600 retail investors surveyed by PrecisionIR.

Complete survey results are published in the report 'IR Magazine Investor Perception Study, Canada 2005: Winning companies, winning strategies'. The report identifies best practices in investor relations, assesses investment community needs and tracks trends within the Canadian equities market. A key finding is that the investment community's primary sources of information include meeting with senior management and notes on financial statements.

Increasingly, investment professionals and analysts want IROs to be steeped in company fundamentals, with 95 percent of respondents citing knowledge of company and sector as an important attribute for an IRO. Adrienne Baker, editor-in-chief of IR magazine, confirms this: 'Now more than ever the need for IR to be part of management's inner circle is essential in order to gain the respect of the buy side and the sell side.'

However, Canada continues to practice IR at a high level with companies using it to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Janet Dignan, managing director of Cross-Border Publishing, publishers of IR magazine, says, 'Canada was the third country - after the UK and the US - to join IR magazine's global awards program, reflecting the sophistication of investor relations in Canada. That was in 1997: since then the evolution of IR in Canada has kept pace with its world-leading neighbor, the US.'

The gala dinner attracted over 400 investor relations, corporate and financial professionals and was hosted by Kim Parlee, host of Report on Business Television's AM Business and Talking Tax, and Pat Bolland, host of Report on Business Television's The Trading Desk.

About IR magazine and the IR Magazine Awards

Published in New York and London by Cross-Border Publishing, IR magazine is the only global publication focused on the interface between companies and their investors. IR magazine has hosted annual awards ceremonies in the US, the UK, continental Europe and Canada since 1991, with combined attendance of more than 6,000 investor relations professionals. For more information, go to www.irawards.com.

Based on their excellent investor relations practices during 2004, the award winners at the eighth annual IR Magazine Canada Awards are as follows: