This year’s Golden Plaque of Belgrade Stock Exchange for best investor relations went to NIS j.s.c. Novi Sad, its third such award to date, as another testimony to the recognition from the professional community of NIS’ efforts to continually improve practices in this field.
13 November 2019This prestigious award was presented to the company at the International Conference of the Belgrade Stock Exchange held today at the Hyatt Hotel in Belgrade. Jelena M. Stanković, Investor Relations Service Manager of NIS j.s.c. Novi Sad, received the award.
The winner of the award was decided by a panel of judges comprised of renowned financial experts scoring fifteen domestic and regional companies. The award was presented based on evaluations across the criteria showing how open companies are to the investor community, including current and historical business reporting, corporate presence on social media, sustainability reporting, corporate performance in the capital market etc.
Jelena M. Stanković highlighted after the awards ceremony that the Golden Plaque of Belgrade Stock Exchange would be another encouragement to NIS to continue to improve investor relations.
“Every year we try and strive to enhance cooperation with investors and we are pleased that the investor community has recognised that this year as well. Going forwards, our primary focus will first be on maintaining the level and then also on enhancing this cooperation, while responding to all demands of the investor community,” Jelena M. Stanković said.
This is the seventh time since the inception of the award by the Belgrade Stock Exchange that NIS has been awarded for best investor relations.
The Belgrade Stock Exchange’s conference also included NIS’ presentation about trends in the local and global markets of compressed natural gas (CNG) which is regarded as a fuel of the future due to its environmental properties and financial benefits.
Goran Lalić, Director of Department for Trading and Managing Natural Gas Portfolio of NIS, said in the presentation that CNG was used both as motor fuel and an energy source in industries. The main advantages of using this energy fuel include improved engine performance, lower costs, increased safety and environmental benefits.
“Compressed natural gas is a fuel of the future specifically because it can equally be used as energy source in industries as well as motor fuel, which is increasingly coming into focus both on a global and European scale. The benefits of this energy source are primarily reflected in financial savings compared with other conventional fuels. Such savings in terms of transport go as high up as 50%. With respect to other benefits, we can see that CNG emits less carbon-dioxide from combustion, while noise levels caused by transport can be halved,” Mr Lalić said.
As a leader in the Serbian petroleum product market, NIS is the first major petrol station network operating in the local market to offer CNG in its retail sites and also to make this energy fuel available through the company’s wholesale system.
In the Serbian market CNG has recorded a steady growth both in wholesale and retail in recent years. CNG is the most cost-effective energy source in industrial production (following natural gas from pipeline), with compression from NIS’ gas fields. CNG consumption in industries in 2018 stood at an estimated 55,000 tonnes that were shipped by specialised vehicles – trailers.
In the retail market, CNG is regarded as the most economical and cleanest fuel. CNG consumption in 2019 was estimated at 20,000 tonnes.
It is believed that there are more than 27 million vehicles powered by natural gas (NGV) around the globe and that this market has a high potential for further development. China currently has the highest NGV uptake – around five million. With regard to Europe, this continent is estimated to have more than two million vehicles, mostly in Italy which has more than 880,000 of these vehicles.
