OREANDA-NEWS. July 23, 2010. Moscow saw the IR Magazine Russia & CIS Awards Ceremony 2010 that brought together the leading IR departments and professionals in Russia and the CIS.

Maria Eliseeva, IR Director of COMSTAR-UTS, was named the best investor relations officer, small & mid cap for the second year running.

The winners are selected based on the independent survey of analysts’ and officers’ preferences. In 2010, IR Magazine Russia & CIS conducted the survey in cooperation with Thomson Reuters Extel, a company of the year. The information was gathered through Extel Pan-European Survey and additional Russia IR survey in April and May 2010. The winners, i.e. companies as well as general directors, CFOs and IR directors, were presented on the ceremony.

Maria Eliseeva comments on her win: “This is the second year running we get this award. This is not my personal achievement, but the success of the whole COMSTAR-UTS team that works to make the company’s business more transparent, and this award recognizes the effectiveness of our efforts.”

COMSTAR-UTS also took the second place in the category of “Most progress in investor relations” and the third place in the category of “Best overall investor relations, small & mid cap”.

The IR Magazine Awards has been held in different regions of the world for 19 years. Now this is the most prestigious investor relations award that honors the most outstanding IR professionals and departments. In 2010, 7 international financial centers, including Moscow, hosted the ceremony. In all the regions the winners were determined using a common IR Magazine technique, i.e. based on the independent surveys to find out opinions of the sell-side and buy-side officers that deal with securities in a corresponding region.