Quoted Company Awards 2012 winners list

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 | Posted by: Fiona Cullinan
| Tags: Grant Thornton, awards, Quoted Company Awards, QCA, Philip Secrett, winners, categories

Ten new stars of British business were crowned tonight at the annual Grant Thornton Quoted Company Awards in London. The high-profile event, attended by more than 800 guests from the City, recognises the talent and achievements of smaller quoted companies and entrepreneurs in the marketplace. So, who came out on top?

The Quoted Company Awards are aimed at high-achieving listed companies quoted below the FTSE 350 through to AIM and PLUS, as well as the entrepreneurs and management teams that drive their success, and the advisers and investors with a stake in their growth stories.

The 2012 awards took place at the Natural History Museum in London and were hosted by BBC presenter Naga Munchetty, with entertainment from the comedian Jimmy Carr. Grant Thornton’s Philip Secrett, Partner in Capital Markets, gave the welcome speech.

There were 10 award categories and the full list of winners is as follows:

THE GRANT THORNTON QUOTED COMPANY AWARDS 2012 WINNERS

• Chairman of the Year – Malcolm Diamond, Trifast
• CEO of the Year – Gareth Jones, Gooch & Housego
• Deal of the Year – Monitise global deal with VISA
• Entrepreneur of the Year – Darren Throop, Entertainment One
• FD of the Year – Pim Vervaat, RPC
• IPO of the Year – Smart Metering Systems
• Non-Executive Director of the Year – David Holme, PSG Solutions
• Investor of the Year – Giles Hargreave, Marlborough UK Micro Cap Growth
• Emerging Markets CEO of the Year – Johann Dippenaar, Petra Diamonds
• AIM to Main – Kentz

Philip Secrett, Partner in Capital Markets, said:

“This year’s Quoted Company Awards brilliantly reflect the diversity of the range of small cap businesses listing in London. Smart Metering Systems is an obvious choice for this year’s IPO of the Year. The provider of services to UK gas suppliers managed to raise capital in a substantially oversubscribed placing and has since seen its share price rise by more than half the initial offer price.

“Another encouraging example is Kentz, which won IPO of the Year in the 2009 QCA awards. Since then, Kentz shares more than quadrupled in value to help the engineering specialist win the award for AIM to Main this year. With this superb performance Kentz defied difficult market conditions, which saw dwindling trading volumes for many small caps.”

For more information on the awards, please visit The Grant Thornton Quoted Company Awards official website.

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