Media giant Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has bagged five awards at this year's Securities Investors Association (Singapore) or Sias Investors' Choice Awards.

It won the Most Transparent Company Award in the non-electronics manufacturing category, and four SPH journalists were recognised for their editorial excellence:

Straits Times correspondent Francis Chan was named Financial Journalist of the Year;

Straits Times assistant money editor Lee Su Shyan won the Financial Story of the Year Award for her scoop, 'Oei Hong Leong loses $1b, takes Citigroup to court';

Business Times reporter Lynette Khoo was named Most Promising Journalist of the Year;

Business Times senior correspondent Teh Hooi Ling earned the first Investor Education Journalist of the Year Award, which recognises reporters who have helped to educate retail investors through their articles.

Ms Lee has been honoured three times at the awards, having won the Financial Journalist of the Year Award in 2004 and 2005, while Ms Teh clinched a special award in 2005.

Mr Chan won for a series of gripping stories about the Minibond saga and how the collapse of a huge investment product caused distress to thousands of ordinary people, as well as bringing censure upon some of Singapore's most prestigious financial institutions.

Straits Times editor Han Fook Kwang said: 'I'm told that Francis is nicknamed 'Mr Minibond' in investor circles, and that is a moniker well-earned.

'He stayed on top of the story throughout the year, never letting go of it - and what a story it has turned out to be, affecting so many people in so many different ways.'

On Ms Teh's win, Business Times editor Alvin Tay said: 'Hooi Ling is one journalist who can claim a loyal following week after week.

'Her 'Show Me The Money' column must be one of the best-followed investment columns in town.'

SPH's win of the Most Transparent Company Award is its eighth.

Said chief executive officer Alan Chan: 'This is an endorsement of our consistency in meeting Sias' key criteria for the award, such as timeliness, substantiality and clarity of news release, degree of media access, frequency of corporate results, and availability of segmental information and communication channels.'

Sias, a non-profit organisation, is the largest investor lobby group in Asia, with almost 70,000 retail investors as members.

It actively promotes investor education, corporate transparency and corporate governance, and is a watchdog for investor rights.

It launched the Most Transparent Company Award in 2000 to encourage public-listed firms to be more transparent.

Sias introduced the awards for journalists in 2001 to encourage more accurate and useful financial reporting to help small investors.

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