Institutional Excellence Awards: invitation to pitch
On August 2, AsianInvestor launched its annual awards programme designed to recognise excellence and best practice among institutional investors across Asia Pacific.
This year we have added a new category of asset class awards and three new country categories. The former group is designed to recognise the institutions that have made particularly strong advances in or successful allocations to a particular asset class.
This marks the fourth year for these awards, which is dedicated to asset owners, a group encompassing many of the region’s biggest and most sophisticated investors. The nomination process starts today and runs until Friday, September 1.
PAST WINNERS
Click on the following links to see lists of the previous winners and photos from last year's awards dinner:
- 2016 award winners by country
- 2016 award winners by category
- 2016 award winners by proficiency
- Photos from the Third Institutional Excellence Awards Dinner
CATEGORIES
These awards are open to all institutional investors across Asia Pacific, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, central banks and insurance companies – large or small. There are 26 awards this year, as follows:
Institutional types
- Central bank
- Insurance company
- Endowment
- Pension fund
- Sovereign wealth fund
- Individual contribution to institutional investment
Markets
- Australia/New Zealand
- China
- Hong Kong
- Japan
- Malaysia (new)
- Singapore (new)
- South Korea
- Taiwan
- Thailand (new)
Proficiencies
- Governance
- Innovation
- Investment capabilities
- Environmental, social and governance capabilities (ESG)
Asset class categories (new)
- Active equity
- Active credit
- Passive investments
- Smart beta
- Real assets
- Private equity
- Private debt
We have weighted five areas of qualitative judgement. The aim is to understand and compare tangible progress as an investing entity, rather than to pick winners based on arbitrary snapshots of fund performance.
HOW TO PITCH
There are several ways to apply and all submissions are treated in strict confidence.
All institutions listed in AsianInvestor’s annual ranking of the top 300 asset owners will be invited to nominate themselves, and smaller institutions are encouraged to apply.
For self-nominations, send an email to [email protected], outlining why you think you deserve recognition. No self-nominations will be made public.
We also welcome nominations from third parties, including fund managers, consultants, custodians and other organisations. Again, please submit your nomination to [email protected].
AsianInvestor has designed a questionnaire around key qualitative factors to ensure a uniform approach to each asset owner. This explains the information we are looking for and details our weighting scheme.
Institutions and nominators are welcome to write to [email protected] to obtain a copy of the questionnaire. Asset size is not a criteria.
Nominees may either fill in the questionnaire, as mentioned above, or we can schedule an interview by phone or in person. Requesting the questionnaire will at least let you know what information we require.
The initial interview process will be a brief, off-the-record discussion with nominees related to our awards criteria.
AsianInvestor’s editorial team may also shortlist asset owners at its own discretion.
THE JUDGING PROCESS
AsianInvestor will invite a panel of experienced industry participants to provide feedback on the information we have gathered through nominations and our own research. They will act as a judging panel and will remain anonymous.
After the nomination process closes on September 1 our editorial team will shortlist asset owners and interview them. We will then announce the winners over the week starting Monday, October 9.
All of the winners will be invited to attend our Institutional Excellence Awards dinner on Wednesday, December 6 in Singapore.
For sponsorship opportunities or to enquire about attendance, please contact AsianInvestor's commercial director Terry Rayner on +852 3175 1963 or by email at [email protected].
Photos of the event and detailed explanations of the reasons for our choices will appear in the December 2017/January 2018 edition of AsianInvestor magazine.