NIS received prestigious East Capital’s Discovery of the Year Award. NIS is the first ever power generating entity in the world and first company from Serbia to have received the prestigious award at the last night ceremony in Stockholm. East Capital, the Swedish company focusing on investments into developing markets, awarded NIS to acknowledge exceptional achievements of this major South East Europe vertically integrated company, which has come a long way since its 2008 acquisition, the official statement says. “Modernisation, introduction of novel technologies and business processes perfecting pulled NIS out of loss-generating entities and propelled it into the ranks of highly profitable companies, posting a $500 million profit in 2012. By the same token, NIS made a huge leap in corporate governance. With its transparent communication with minority shareholders and spearheading a clear-cut dividends policy, NIS brought about new standards of corporate governance to Serbia’s business environment”, states the rationale for this award, which is granted for exceptional performance in sales, market share and profit boost. It has been ten years since East Capital established awards for excellence in performance by companies within their investment portfolio. East Captial was set up in 1997, with its Stockholm Headquarters managing the funds amounting to €3.6 billion, and comprising offices in Hong Kong, Kiev, Luxembourg, Moscow, Oslo, Paris and Tallin. East Capital bases its investment strategy on the market knowledge, business operation analysis and its investment teams’ frequent visits to the companies, in whose shares it makes investments. With its 0.24 % share in NIS equity, East Capital is the second minority shareholder of this company. “It is a great privilege and pleasure to receive an award that makes us proud for at least two reasons. First, this is an acknowledgement that we chose the right path and that our two-billion euros investment into development and innovation in the recent four years brought about good results. Second, this award is given by a shareholder, who knows our company much better than anyone else and who follows our business steps with great attention. I pledge the continuous commitment to transparency in business activities, to efficiency improvement and to investments into the growth and development to the tune of €1.5 billion over the course of this and the coming two years”, said Kirill Kravchenko, CEO of NIS, at the awarding ceremony. This year East Capital awarded the following companies as well: K-cell, Kazahstan’s major mobile operator, M-Video, Russia’s biggest electricity appliances retailer and Yandex, greatest internet browser in Russia. In recent ten years, this award went to the companies like the largest Russian bank Sberbank, famous Turkish Airlines, one of the biggest banking groups in the region Raiffeisen International as well as famous regional company Atlantic group.
