KIPCO: Best Corporate Governance Kuwait 2016

Successfully managing vast investment volumes across industries and sectors requires a significant organisational wherewithal as provided by a firm and comprehensive corporate governance structure. One of the most admired companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), KIPCO Group of Kuwait comprises a universe of over 60 companies in 24 countries. KIPCO Group (Kuwait Projects Company Holding) has a particularly strong presence in the financial services, media, real estate, and manufacturing sectors.

With a corporate footprint that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, the Kuwaiti group showcases the achievements of strict adherence to prudent and sensible investment strategies. Founded in 1975, KIPCO Group now provides over 12,000 people with good jobs. The group’s companies include Burgan Bank – one of the region’s premier financial institutions – and the Gulf Insurance Group, likewise a regional giant. KIPCO also owns a majority stake in OSN, the leading pay TV service in the Middle East broadcasting premier HD programming in Arabic, English, and Filipino.

Transparency and sound corporate governance are at the very core of all KIPCO operations and processes. The group has erected a number of highly visible audits and governance structures that ensure objectives are met in a timely manner and peak corporate performance is maintained.

KIPCO Group’s signatory annual Shafafiyah (transparency) Investors Forum, which takes place in the wake of the company’s yearly general assembly, allows management an opportunity to review its past performance and offer guidance on corporate prospects. Shareholders, media representatives, and the wider public are actively encouraged to partake and ask questions or raise concerns. Broadcast live via the Internet, the forum also enables the management of KIPCO Group to gauge the reaction of analysts, shareholders, and the public to the company’s many undertakings. The event generates a valuable cache of data that is used by the group’s management to fine-tune operations and processes and thus preserve and expand the goodwill thus far generated.

The CFI.co judging panel hails KIPCO Group for its forward looking and pioneering approach to corporate governance. The judges agree that a company’s reputation is its most valuable asset. KIPCO Group is the undisputed winner of the 2016 Best Corporate Governance Kuwait Award.