Harrah's Named 'Most Shareholder-Friendly' Gaming & Lodging Company
LAS VEGAS, NV, February 28, 2006. Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:HET) has been named 'America's Most Shareholder-Friendly Company' in the gaming and lodging industry by Institutional Investor magazine.
Rankings were determined by votes from 1,300 analysts and portfolio managers, who were asked to identify and rank the most shareholder-friendly companies in the industries for which they have responsibility, based on quality of corporate governance and investor relations practices. The magazine honored companies in 62 sectors.
"What are shareholders looking for? In addition to strong financial performance, stock price appreciation and solid corporate governance policies - such as an independent board of directors, sensible executive compensation and a lack of antitakeover defenses - investors above all want companies to be honest with them," the magazine wrote.
Joining Harrah's in the inaugural list were such companies as Dow Chemical, United Parcel Service, General Electric, Southwest Airlines, Coach, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Hershey, Nordstrom, Home Depot, Wells Fargo, American Express, Yahoo!, Dell Computer and Cisco Systems.
The ranking comes one month after Institutional Investor recognized Harrah's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Gary Loveman as "Best CEO" in the gaming and lodging industry for the third consecutive year.
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