Michelin Receives Best Annual Report Prize

On October 18, Michelin received the Best Annual Report 2006 Prize in the CAC 40 category during the 53rd Financial Communication Venue organised by two of France’s foremost financial newspapers: ‘la Vie Financière’ and ‘Les Echos’. The prize is given to CAC 40 companies – the forty largest Paris Bourse listed stocks in terms of market capitalisation on the stock exchange – whose annual reports contain the clearest and most transparent information on the company’s economic situation and future prospects.

To quote Mr. Carlos Ghosn, who chaired the panel responsible for selecting award recipients, the four principal qualities of Michelin’s report were “the quality of the group’s business and environment review; the usefulness of background information based on multiple and documented forecasts; the shareholder focus through a Shareholder booklet which in itself is a benchmark document and the clear and lively layout (and the latter two qualities are known to be difficult to achieve in the particular field of financial communication).”

The reward was doubly appreciated by Michelin’s financial communication team as it had been required to re-engineer its process, thus substantially reducing completion lead time for this edition of the company’s annual report. Mr. Christophe Mazel, Investor Relations director, noted: “Drawn up jointly with the legal department, the report also serves as the reference document for the purposes of Autorité des Marchés Financiers, France’s financial market regulatory body. Its availability by the end of February has enabled the Group to successfully complete a financial operation in very favourable conditions.”