STMicroelectronics Named Again Among ‘350 Most Admired Companies’ in FORTUNE Magazine’s 2011 Annual Ranking

Within these 350 companies in the overall ranking, STMicroelectronics is one of only eight companies in the semiconductor industry to earn a place in this year’s FORTUNE annual listing, which ranks the top overall most-admired companies and provides industry-specific and regional lists.

Ranked as the sixth most admired company in the semiconductor industry, ST was the second highest-rated company based outside the United States and the highest-rated Europe-based chip maker in the sector.

“ST has long been committed to acting as a responsible corporation that has always emphasized innovation, creating an outstanding broad product portfolio,” said Didier Lamouche, Chief Operating Officer of STMicroelectronics. “We are proud and delighted to have been recognized by our partners, suppliers and other stakeholders who contributed to the survey, to be among FORTUNE’s Most Admired Companies. This is definitely a tribute to all ST’s employees and managers who have worked so passionately over the years to make ST the leader it is today.”

All semiconductor companies in the industry-specific ranking were rated based on nine factors, including quality of products or services, quality of management, global competitiveness, and soundness of financial position, to name a few. STMicroelectronics placed seventh-or-better in six of the nine reputation-attribute categories – including the industry’s fourth highest-rating for social responsibility. Furthermore, it was the highest-rated European semiconductor player in eight of the nine categories.

“Sustainable business and socially responsible practices are especially important to STMicroelectronics, therefore to receive high marks from our peers in that category is extremely rewarding to all of us,” said Lamouche. “It’s a sign that our long-standing initiatives and our beliefs in exemplary corporate citizenship are being recognized – and this is stimulating us to strive for more across all areas.”

FORTUNE’s ‘World’s Most Admired Companies’ survey, which debuted in the U.S. in 1983 and began ranking companies worldwide in 1997, is the ‘definitive report card on corporate reputations.’ To participate in the ranking, companies must either be Fortune 1000 businesses, non-US companies on the Fortune Global 500 list, or top foreign businesses operating in the U.S.

This year, more than 1400 companies were considered – and a total of 673 companies from 32 countries across 57 industries were surveyed.

For this edition, FORTUNE and its partners at Hay Group surveyed approximately 4100 top executives and directors from eligible companies, along with financial analysts – who assessed companies in their own industries, and also voted on companies being considered for the overall most admired list.