Annual report design in Malaysia in 2026 is being shaped by two regulatory currents at the same time. The first is Malaysia’s National Sustainability Reporting Framework (NSRF), implemented for Bursa-listed issuers through Bursa’s sustainability reporting requirements, with Phase 1 large-cap PLCs reporting for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025. The second is the move to ISSB-aligned IFRS S1 and S2 climate disclosures sitting inside the same document as the audited financial statements. Layout decisions follow disclosure decisions, and the design brief now reads more like a content-architecture brief than the print-publication brief of the previous decade.
This guide walks through the four annual report formats Malaysian organisations publish, the design practices that move the needle in 2026, the integrated annual report format in detail, bilingual layout discipline, print specifications, the production calendar that survives an audit, and the cost framing Walk Production uses when scoping a Bursa-listed engagement. It folds in the design practices, design trends, integrated reporting, and cost notes that previously sat on separate cluster pages, with the regulatory citations carrying the load they did not always carry before.
Walk Production is an integrated creative agency in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia, producing annual reports, sustainability reports, and integrated reports for Bursa-listed companies, GLCs, and statutory bodies. The reports practice is delivered by a 40-person in-house team across editorial, design, infographic, photography, BM and English translation, and print production. The companion guide on annual report content for Bursa-listed Malaysian companies covers the disclosure-floor side in detail; this guide focuses on the design and format choices that shape how readers actually move through the document.
What annual report design covers in Malaysia
A Bursa-listed annual report engagement covers several production disciplines that share a single timeline and a single sign-off chain: editorial structure and content architecture, visual and layout design, infographic and data visualisation, editorial copywriting, bilingual production where applicable, photography direction, and print production from pre-press through binding.
The work that comes before any page is laid out decides whether the rest of the design has anything coherent to design. The issuer and the agency agree the theme, the order of sections, how the sustainability content threads through the narrative, and how the financial highlights, MD&A, and segment review feed one another. For an integrated report under NSRF Phase 1, the design system has to give the sustainability section its own visual weight without fragmenting the document. Infographic work has to reconcile back to the audited financials and the sustainability data tables, not decorate them.
The discipline running through all of this is sign-off coordination across the agency, the issuer’s investor relations, sustainability, legal, secretarial, audit, and assurance teams, with the AGM date as the immovable deadline.
The four annual report formats
A frequent question from new listed clients: should this be an annual report, an annual review, an integrated report, or a separate sustainability report? Each format carries a different reader, a different content set, and a different design system.
| Format | Reader | Content scope | Typical issuer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard annual report | Shareholders, regulators, analysts | Full MMLR mandatory disclosure plus narrative sections | Every Bursa-listed PLC |
| Integrated annual report | Shareholders plus broader stakeholders | Financial and sustainability content woven into one value-creation narrative | Increasingly common for Bursa-listed PLCs, especially NSRF Phase 1 |
| Annual review | Stakeholders, peers, the general public | Highlights, milestones, narrative, photography; no full audited financials | Statutory bodies, universities, GLCs that are not Bursa-listed |
| Standalone sustainability report | ESG analysts, rating agencies, regulators | Extended ESG metrics, GRI-referenced indicators, TCFD/IFRS S2-aligned climate disclosure | Bursa-listed issuers with mature ESG initiatives that also publish an integrated or standard annual report |
Page count varies widely within each format. The case-study section further down gives verified extents for two recent Bursa-listed projects (Swift Haulage 222 pages, SOP 280 pages) as worked references rather than market-wide ranges.
For Bursa-listed issuers, the practical choice is usually between a traditional annual report plus a standalone sustainability report, or a single integrated annual report. The standalone route gives the ESG analyst community a fuller document at the cost of a second sign-off cycle and a second print run. The integrated route gives the lay reader one document but requires the editorial team to keep the financial and sustainability narratives in sync from the materiality refresh through to the final proof.
Statutory bodies, universities, and non-listed GLCs more often publish an annual review. The annual review carries highlights, narrative, photography, and infographic-led data without the mandatory financial-statement and governance disclosure of a Bursa-listed annual report. The MAVCOM and UTP projects later in this guide are examples of the format.
Where a separate sustainability report is published, the annual report sustainability statement still has to stand on its own under MMLR and link out clearly to the longer document. For deeper coverage of the sustainability side, the companion guide on elements of a sustainability report walks through the disclosure architecture and the regulatory layering across MMLR, NSRF, and IFRS S1 and S2.
What an integrated annual report adds
An integrated annual report is a single corporate report that combines financial performance, governance, strategy, risk, and sustainability disclosures into one narrative built around how an organisation creates and preserves value over time. The conceptual framework comes from the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), now part of the IFRS Foundation under the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The International Integrated Reporting Framework remains the source text for the format.
The IIRC framework, first formalised in 2013, addressed a gap in the way listed companies reported: traditional financial reports told shareholders how much money the company made, but said little about the conditions, relationships, and resources that made that performance possible or sustainable. After the IIRC merged with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) to form the Value Reporting Foundation in 2021 and consolidated under the IFRS Foundation in 2022, the framework now sits alongside the ISSB’s IFRS S1 (general sustainability) and IFRS S2 (climate) standards, which through NSRF shape how Malaysian sustainability disclosures are now structured.
The six capitals model
The most distinctive element of the IIRC framework is its six capitals model. Rather than measuring performance through financial capital alone, the framework asks organisations to consider six interdependent forms of capital that create or erode value over time.
- Financial capital covers the funds available to the organisation, including equity, debt, and retained earnings.
- Manufactured capital refers to physical assets: buildings, equipment, plant, and infrastructure.
- Intellectual capital includes intangible assets such as intellectual property, patents, proprietary systems, and brand value.
- Human capital covers the skills, experience, health, and motivation of the people in the organisation.
- Social and relationship capital relates to trust, reputation, and the quality of relationships with communities, regulators, suppliers, and customers.
- Natural capital covers the environmental resources the organisation depends on or affects, including water, land, air quality, and biodiversity.
An integrated annual report shows how the organisation draws on all six capitals, how it transforms them through its business model, and what outcomes it creates for stakeholders and society. A company that reports only on financial capital gives a partial picture. One that integrates all six tends to give investors and other stakeholders a more complete account of where value comes from and what risks could erode it.
Why more Malaysian PLCs are moving to integrated reporting
Three forces are pulling Malaysian PLCs toward integrated reporting in 2026. NSRF itself: as Bursa-listed sustainability disclosure aligns with IFRS S1 and S2, the sustainability statement carries more weight, more data, and more assurance, and many issuers find it easier to design the financial and sustainability narratives together rather than bolt a heavier sustainability section onto the back of a traditional annual report. The Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) 2021, which encourages boards to demonstrate that sustainability considerations are embedded in strategy and governance. And institutional investor expectation: global asset managers and pension funds increasingly use sustainability disclosures as investment and risk inputs, and for issuers seeking foreign institutional investment or dual listings, a connected integrated narrative is becoming a material consideration rather than a stylistic one.
For a worked example of how financial and non-financial narratives are woven together with visual coherence, see the UTP Annual Review 2023 later in this guide.
NSRF and IFRS S1 S2 design pressure
The most consequential change to Bursa annual report content over the last two reporting cycles is the adoption of the National Sustainability Reporting Framework. NSRF references the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards issued by the ISSB, and phases adoption across Bursa-listed issuers by market capitalisation and market segment.
Per Bursa Malaysia’s sustainability framework page, the phased timeline applies to financial years beginning on or after the following dates:
| Market segment | Market capitalisation threshold | First NSRF reporting year |
|---|---|---|
| Main Market - large cap | Above RM2 billion as at 31 December 2024 | FY beginning on or after 1 January 2025 |
| Main Market - remaining issuers | Below the large-cap threshold | FY beginning on or after 1 January 2026 |
| ACE Market | All issuers | FY beginning on or after 1 January 2027 |
Two transition reliefs are particularly relevant to the first reporting cycle:
- Climate-only in year one. For the first reporting year, Main Market large-cap issuers may focus disclosure on climate-related risks and opportunities under IFRS S2 and defer general sustainability disclosure under IFRS S1 in the first year.
- Scope 3 GHG deferral. Disclosure of Scope 3 greenhouse-gas emissions can be deferred for the early years of adoption, reflecting the data-collection lead time many Malaysian issuers face on their value chains.
Sitting alongside NSRF is the Bursa Sustainability Reporting Guide and the Sustainability Statement requirements under the Main Market Listing Requirements (paragraph 9.45(2) and Appendix 9C, supplemented by Practice Note 9). NSRF does not replace these. It layers IFRS S1 and S2 disclosures on top, so a Phase 1 issuer is reporting against both frameworks in the same document. Always confirm the live timeline and reliefs with Bursa Malaysia and the IFRS Foundation’s Sustainability Standards Navigator before signing off the framework section of an annual report.
What this means for the design system
The implication for design teams is direct. As each NSRF group enters scope on its phased timeline (subject to the live transition reliefs above), the in-scope annual report needs an integrated sustainability section that reads as a first-class part of the report, not a back-of-book appendix. The Sustainability Statement now shares page budget with the financial statements, the MCCG 2021 governance disclosures, and the chairman and CEO narratives.
Three things follow.
First, the sustainability section has to defend the items inside the assurance perimeter. External assurance is moving onto the NSRF timeline, focused on Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions, with wider sustainability assurance subject to the live SC and ACSR framework. The design has to give the assurance statement visible weight inside the report rather than bury it as an appendix.
Second, climate disclosure is now a search task, not a reading task. Investors, analysts, and assurance providers come into the document with a specific question (what scenarios were tested, what scope of emissions, what targets, what governance) and need to find the answer without reading the whole book. A common approach in 2026 reports is to use the four IFRS pillars (governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets) as the layout system for the sustainability section, so a reader looking for emissions data goes to Metrics and Targets without scanning the whole chapter.
Third, the production calendar moves earlier. Materiality refresh, sustainability data collection, and assurance scoping now have to be completed in the months before design build starts, rather than running in parallel with first drafts. The section on the production calendar later in this guide unpacks that sequencing.
The five design practices that matter in 2026
Annual report design “best practices” lists tend to run to twenty items. Most of them are decoration advice. The five practices below are the ones that change how the report performs in front of regulators, analysts, and the board.
1. Narrative-led MD&A
The MD&A carries the analytical weight of the report. It needs to be designed as a narrative spine, not a compliance dump. That means a clear strategic story, segment commentary tied to the same KPIs every year, and forward-looking statements that match what the CEO has said on the results call and in the chairman’s statement.
When the MD&A is treated as a designed narrative, the rest of the report tends to fall into place. When it is treated as filler, the report reads as a binder.
A practical content rule we apply on the editorial side: every quantitative claim in the MD&A ties back to a specific line in the audited financial statements, and every forward-looking statement carries a cautionary disclosure explaining the basis of preparation and the principal assumptions. The companion guide on annual report content covers the narrative discipline in more detail.
2. Integrated sustainability section under NSRF
Under NSRF Phase 1, the sustainability section is no longer a CSR brochure at the back. It carries a climate section structured around IFRS S2 disclosures, Scope 1 and 2 emissions data on the NSRF assurance timeline, and a materiality assessment that reads consistently with the strategy and risk sections.
The design implication is that the sustainability section earns the same visual weight as the financial review. Section opener, type hierarchy, colour palette, and infographic system stay consistent with the rest of the document rather than switching into a different visual register. The reader experiences a single story about value creation, not two adjacent reports glued together.
3. Data visualisation as substance, not decoration
A chart in a 2026 annual report has to do work. It has to show a trend, a segment split, an emissions intensity movement, or a year-on-year change that the reader can verify against the audited financials or the sustainability data tables.
The reconciliation rule we apply internally: every chart traces back to a number that appears in the financial statements or the sustainability data tables. If it does not, it is decoration and it comes out. The detailed treatment is in the data visualisation section further down.
4. Designed for screen first, print as deliverable
In Walk Production’s experience, the PDF tends to be the primary read for analysts and assurance providers, while print is the form board members and AGM attendees ask for. Designing for screen first means single-column readable layouts at 100 per cent zoom, hyperlinked tables of contents, bookmarked sections, and tagged PDFs for accessibility. Print is then derived from the same InDesign master for the AGM and the stakeholder pack.
A small number of Malaysian Main Market issuers now ship a microsite annual report alongside the PDF, with modular sections, animated data visuals, and user-defined views of financial data. The microsite is not a replacement for the PDF (Bursa filing, assurance, and AGM dispatch still hinge on the PDF) but it gives digital-first readers a navigable surface for the data on first read.
5. Bilingual layout discipline
GLCs, statutory bodies, regulators, and many Bursa-listed issuers with material government or domestic-retail shareholder bases publish bilingual reports. The mistake we see most often is treating Bahasa Malaysia as a back-of-book translation that gets dropped into a layout designed for English.
Bilingual discipline means the grid, type sizes, and section breaks are designed to hold both languages from the start. Bahasa Malaysia can run longer than the equivalent English content, so the grid has to absorb that without breaking pagination, table-to-figure alignment, or section-opener consistency. The bilingual layout section further down covers the practical approaches.
Data visualisation as substance
Data visualisation in Bursa-listed annual reports has matured past the corporate-blue bar chart. Three workhorse chart types in particular tend to do the heaviest lifting in 2026 reports.
Sankey diagrams allocate Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions flows across business segments, so the reader can see where in the value chain each tonne of CO2-equivalent originates without parsing a footnoted table. For an issuer with multiple downstream operations, this is one of the clearest ways to make the emissions story navigable.
Dual-axis bar-and-line charts carry revenue against emissions intensity, plotting absolute revenue on the bar axis and tonnes of CO2-equivalent per million ringgit of revenue on the line axis. This is the visual that shows whether the issuer is decoupling growth from emissions over the reporting cycle.
Geographic risk maps, plotted at asset or operating-site level, can carry physical-climate scenario exposure under IFRS S2, with sites colour-graded by acute and chronic risk under the issuer’s chosen scenario. For a plantation, energy, or property group, the map turns climate scenario language into something the reader can locate.
The discipline running through all of this is restraint. Not every metric deserves a graphic, and the design brief should identify which figures carry strategic weight. Charts that exist only to fill a page tend to read as filler and weaken the rest of the data viz. When the sustainability section runs to forty or fifty pages, disciplined visualisation is what keeps the chapter readable.
A few things that show up in agency portfolios as 2026 trends and do not earn the label: gradient backgrounds, oversized photography for the sake of it, stock business imagery of handshakes or glass towers, generic infographics that decorate rather than explain, conservative palettes refreshed with a single accent colour and called modern. These are art-direction tics rather than strategic moves. A 2026 report is judged on whether the disclosure architecture works, not on whether the chairman’s portrait is full-bleed.
Bilingual layout discipline
Bursa-listed annual reports are usually published in English. Statutory bodies, GLCs with a national mandate, universities, and listed issuers with material government or domestic-retail stakeholder bases more often publish a bilingual Bahasa Malaysia and English document, or a parallel pair of single-language documents.
Bilingual layout planning has to handle text expansion. Bahasa Malaysia tends to run longer than the same English content, which affects column widths, page breaks, caption-to-figure alignment, and the total extent of the document. Two practical approaches in use across Walk Production’s bilingual work:
Whichever approach is chosen, typography, heading hierarchy, page numbering, and cover treatment stay consistent across both language versions. Inconsistency between languages signals carelessness to a regulator reading the BM version next to the English one. A bilingual-ready grid built at the start of design also avoids the rework cycle that happens when the English version is signed off first and the BM version forces approved layouts to be revisited.
For statutory bodies in particular, the bilingual mandate sits at the centre of the brief and shapes the design system, page architecture, and production timeline from day one. The MAVCOM 2023 project covered later in this guide is a worked example of parallel English and BM versions designed together rather than in sequence.
Print specifications and binding choices
Annual report print specifications are agreed brief by brief, against the client’s house standards, the AGM distribution plan, and the budget. There is no single Bursa default. There is a stable set of production variables to walk through and a binding decision driven by page count and shelf life.
The table below sets out the variables and the considerations behind each.
| Production variable | Common considerations |
|---|---|
| Cover stock | Heavier coated stocks (commonly 250-350 GSM) are typical for board-room presentation feel; matt lamination is common for a corporate look, gloss for a brighter shelf-read |
| Inner pages | Coated art paper at varying weights (commonly 100-128 GSM for shorter publications, 100-150 GSM for thicker annual reports); the chosen GSM trades opacity for total document weight |
| Financial statement section | 80-100 GSM woodfree paper is common where the financial section is set apart from the narrative on a different stock to manage extent and weight |
| Binding | Saddle-stitch is often considered for shorter publications; perfect binding for mid-length documents; thread-sewn (Smyth-sewn) for longer annual reports that need to lie flat in a boardroom and survive multi-year shelf life. The break points are agreed brief by brief rather than fixed as page rules |
| Cover finish | Matt or gloss lamination are common base finishes; spot UV, foiling, and embossing are optional treatments usually applied to logos, theme motifs, or cover typography rather than body content |
| Print method | Larger print runs typically use CMYK offset for unit-cost efficiency; shorter director or boardroom-copy runs sometimes use digital presses where unit cost and turnaround favour digital over offset |
A note on binding for annual reports specifically. Perfect-bound annual reports of significant extent can lose pages off the spine over a multi-year boardroom shelf life as the glue ages and the spread is forced open at the binding. For longer annual reports that are expected to sit on a boardroom shelf as a multi-year reference, sewn binding tends to hold up better than glue-only binding over the document’s working life. The right specification depends on page count, run size, distribution plan, and expected shelf life, and is always confirmed against the client brief. Hardcover treatments are typically reserved for commemorative coffee table books and milestone publications rather than recurring annual reports.
Walk Production publication examples
Three Walk Production projects illustrate how print specifications are agreed against the brief rather than against a generic Bursa default. Specifications below are referenced at the level of detail confirmed in the public portfolio.
Swift Haulage Annual Report 2024 is a Main Market integrated report at 222 pages. Walk Production managed print production from pre-press through binding. Paper stock, finishing, and binding specifications were agreed against the client’s house standards and the 222-page extent.
Medivest Coffee Table Book is a commemorative coffee table book documenting Medivest’s healthcare facilities management work in Malaysian public hospitals. Walk Production managed paper stock selection, colour reproduction, and binding to a premium standard. Hardcover treatment is typical for commemorative coffee table books of meaningful extent where the publication is intended for stakeholder presentation rather than recurring annual reporting.
Samling Frontiera Catalogue is a product catalogue produced with paper, finishing, and binding specifications agreed against the brief and the catalogue’s extent.
The pattern across these projects is that binding is the variable driven by extent and shelf life, while cover finishing (matt or gloss lamination, spot UV, foiling) tends to be the line item clients overspend on relative to its visual impact. The cost is in the design days, not the press.
The production calendar that survives audit and assurance
A Bursa annual report typically runs to a four-to-five month production calendar from concept kickoff to delivered print copies. For an NSRF Phase 1 large-cap report aimed at a March or April AGM, the calendar tends to start earlier and look something like the schedule below. Treat these as sensible defaults rather than rigid dates.
| Month before AGM | Stage | Critical content tasks |
|---|---|---|
| 8-10 | Scope and pre-brief | Scope agreement, materiality refresh, sustainability KPI lock, assurance provider engagement, design RFP if a new agency is being appointed |
| 6-8 | Data and outline | Sustainability data collection across Scope 1 and Scope 2, climate scenario analysis for IFRS S2, executive interview schedule, MD&A skeleton, photography brief |
| 4-6 | First draft and design build | First full draft of narrative sections, sustainability data into draft tables, design concept locked, grid and template built, photography shoots completed |
| 3-4 | Internal review and integration | Internal review rounds with finance, sustainability, IR, legal, and company secretarial; financial statements drop into layout; bilingual translation in parallel |
| 2-3 | Audit and assurance sign-off | External audit sign-off, sustainability assurance fieldwork and sign-off where applicable, board approval rounds, final proofs |
| 1-2 | Print, dispatch, and digital release | Final design pass, print production, AGM pack assembly, direct mail to shareholders, Bursa filing, investor relations site update |
For first-time NSRF Phase 1 reporters, the calendar above tightens by four to six weeks because the materiality refresh and the assurance scoping conversation each take longer in the inaugural cycle and consume the early-cycle window that returning reporters use for first-draft writing.
The cleanest calendars Walk Production has worked through share three features. The board agrees the theme and structure at the start rather than at design round three. Sustainability content is compiled alongside the financial data rather than bolted on after audit close. Audit and sustainability assurance teams are looped in from day one so the sign-off chain sequences cleanly rather than colliding in the final fortnight.
The most common calendar failure is late materiality refresh. Teams that leave materiality until the design phase end up with a matrix that contradicts the strategy section, and the contradiction shows up only when an assurance reviewer or an analyst flags it. Locking materiality before the design brief goes out is the single change that tends to reduce the most rework downstream.
How Walk Production scopes annual report cost
Annual report design cost is the line in a Malaysian reporting budget that swings the most. Audit fees are roughly known and the printer’s last quote is on file, but design quotes can vary widely across agencies because the underlying scopes are not directly comparable. Page-by-page rates published by various Malaysian agencies cover such different scopes (some include photography, some exclude print management, some quote bilingual as part of base, others as add-on) that benchmarking across them tends to mislead.
Walk Production scopes annual report design as an agency-specific quote against four primary variables: format and disclosure depth, page count and extent, bilingual scope, and sustainability section depth.
Format and disclosure depth. A standard annual report, an integrated annual report under NSRF Phase 1, an annual review, and a standalone sustainability report each carry different content loads. An NSRF Phase 1 large-cap integrated report with full IFRS S1 and S2 disclosure carries more design days than a mid-cap standard report, because the sustainability section earns the same visual weight as the financial review and the assurance coordination workload sits on top.
Page count and extent. Page count varies materially by issuer and disclosure depth; the financial statements often add a substantial number of pages of simpler layout work on top of the narrative section. Specify expected page counts for the narrative and financial sections separately when requesting quotes.
Bilingual scope. Bilingual production (parallel BM and English, or BM-only for some statutory bodies) adds materially to the base design cost because it involves translation coordination, dual-language typesetting, layout adjustments for text expansion, and bilingual proofreading. The right grid built from day one is cheaper than the same grid built in English and retrofitted to BM in round three.
Sustainability section depth. A sustainability section under NSRF Phase 1 with assured Scope 1 and 2 data, climate scenarios under IFRS S2, materiality matrices, and a governance disclosure is a different workload from a short narrative sustainability statement under the prior MSER 2.0 baseline.
Secondary variables that move the quote inside each band: photography and commissioned shoots, the volume of custom data visualisation, the number of internal review rounds the issuer needs, microsite or interactive PDF deliverables, print management scope, direct mail and AGM-pack distribution, and rush windows under a compressed calendar.
Walk Production engagements typically include concept development, layout design in InDesign, typography management, data visualisation and infographics, image sourcing or commissioned shoot coordination, print-ready PDF preparation, a digital version, and project management against the AGM calendar. Quoted separately as add-ons: editorial copywriting where the issuer’s IR or sustainability team is not supplying drafts, BM translation where bilingual scope is added mid-cycle, commissioned photography shoots, microsite or interactive HTML5 development, and print production coordination beyond pre-press. The printing run itself, financial statement preparation, regulatory compliance content drafting, and shareholder distribution beyond AGM-pack assembly are excluded.
For broader cost context on creative-project budgets in Malaysia, see our notes on how marketing budgets are planned. The right scope for an annual report engagement is best confirmed against the issuer’s specific brief, AGM date, NSRF status, bilingual requirement, and assurance scope rather than against a published rate card.
Four Walk Production annual reports across formats
The four projects below sit in the publication portfolio and illustrate how the format-and-scope choices in this guide land in practice. Each name is taken directly from the company’s official listing or corporate record.
Swift Haulage Berhad 2024 (Main Market, integrated logistics)
Swift Haulage Berhad is an integrated logistics group on the Bursa Main Market. The 2024 annual report ran to 222 pages as a single integrated document covering the operational review, sustainability statement, and audited financial statements. Walk Production’s scope covered annual report design, infographic design, report copywriting, sustainability statement copywriting, and print production. The design brief was to communicate the group’s evolution from a traditional haulier into a modern integrated logistics provider while threading sustainability content through the operational narrative. Paper and finishing specifications were agreed against the client’s house standards and the 222-page extent.
Sarawak Oil Palms Berhad 2024 (Main Market, plantation, property, and trading)
Sarawak Oil Palms Berhad (SOP) is a Sarawak-based plantation, property, and trading group on the Bursa Main Market. The 2024 report integrated sustainability content through the operational chapters rather than confining it to a separate ESG section. Walk Production’s scope covered annual report design, infographic design, proofreading, media advertisement placement, print production, and direct mail distribution to registered shareholders. The wider scope (design through to mail-house delivery against the AGM advertisement schedule) is closer to what a Main Market issuer with a heavy retail shareholder register typically requires.
Sunview Group Berhad 2023 (ACE Market, construction and engineering)
Sunview Group Berhad is a construction and engineering group on the Bursa ACE Market. The 2023 annual report covered concept development, visual and layout design, infographic design, and print production, structured around the group’s revenue growth and forward project pipeline. ACE Market annual reports follow a parallel set of Listing Requirements to the Main Market; exact disclosure requirements should be checked against the live Listing Requirements and the issuer’s adviser guidance for the cycle.
Icon Offshore Berhad 2023 (Main Market, oil and gas)
Icon Offshore Berhad operates offshore vessels supporting oil and gas exploration and production, on the Bursa Main Market. The 2023 annual report was developed around an ESG-integrated structure, with environmental performance, safety records, and governance disclosure woven through the operational chapters rather than separated into a back-of-book sustainability section. The design used ocean-inspired graphic elements and a blue-green palette to connect the operational environment with the company’s environmental focus.
Two further projects sit alongside the Bursa-listed work in the same agency calendar because they cover content formats that organisations in the Bursa orbit regularly publish in parallel.
Annual review variant: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) 2023
UTP’s 2023 Annual Review is an annual review rather than a Bursa-listed annual report. UTP is a private university and not a listed entity, so the publication carries institutional highlights, research outputs, ranking metrics, and milestone narrative without the mandatory financial-statement and governance disclosure required of a Bursa-listed PLC. For a listed group that also runs a foundation, a university, or a non-listed subsidiary, the annual review format is often the right vehicle for the non-listed entity’s annual storytelling.
Statutory body variant: Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) 2023
The MAVCOM 2023 annual report is a statutory body publication, not a Bursa-listed annual report. The brief covered art direction, copywriting, Bahasa Malaysia translation, graphic design, and print production across parallel English and BM versions. For statutory body and government-agency clients, the bilingual mandate sits at the centre of the brief and shapes the design system, page architecture, and production timeline from day one. MAVCOM is a worked example in Walk Production’s portfolio of parallel English and BM versions designed together rather than in sequence.
For a broader view of the work Walk Production has shipped across these formats, the annual report portfolio carries the case studies that did not make this guide.
Common design and content gaps
A handful of design and content gaps come up consistently across Bursa-listed annual reports.
Sustainability statement that reads as a separate document. Despite NSRF and IFRS S1/S2, some sustainability statements still read as standalone disclosures with no visible connection to the strategy, the risk register, or the financial result. The common indicator: a different writing voice, graphic system, and colour palette from the rest of the report. The fix is to design the financial and sustainability sections inside the same visual register from day one.
MD&A that restates the financial statements. If the MD&A simply repeats what appears in the income statement and balance sheet, it adds no analytical layer. The MD&A’s job is to explain the “why” behind every material variance, not recite the numbers.
Data viz as decoration. Charts that do not reconcile to the audited numbers, donut charts that hide the underlying values, infographics that exist only to fill a page. These get caught by analysts and erode credibility. The reconciliation rule (every chart traces back to a number in the financial or sustainability statements) is the cleanest test.
Generic chairman’s statement. A statement that could be lifted out of this report and dropped into any other Bursa-listed PLC’s report. Chairman’s statements that read well tend to be unmistakably the voice of one chairman speaking about one company in one specific year.
Bilingual added at the end. If BM translation is commissioned after the English layout is locked, the BM version will overflow the grid, break the section openers, and need a separate set of type rules. Designing the bilingual grid from the first concept page is the fix.
Late materiality refresh. A materiality matrix refreshed mid-design ends up contradicting the strategy section. Locking materiality before the design brief reduces the most rework downstream, and this is the single calendar change that tends to make the biggest difference for first-time NSRF Phase 1 reporters.
Last-minute assurance scope changes. The assurance provider may expand or narrow scope late in the cycle. If the design has already laid out the assurance statement, the change cascades. Brief the design team on assurance scope at the same time the assurance engagement is signed.
The brief Walk Production asks for at kickoff
When a new annual report engagement starts, the brief we ask the issuer to bring to the kick-off meeting covers the items below. A brief that arrives with most of these answered tends to cut several weeks off the schedule. A brief that arrives with “we will send you the content when it is ready” usually loses those weeks in the review phase.
The decision-maker name on the issuer side also matters more than most clients realise. A single sign-off authority shortens the review cycle by weeks. A committee that reads every draft together pushes the calendar in the other direction.
How Walk Production can help
Walk Production is a Kuala Lumpur and Selangor annual report design agency producing annual reports, integrated reports, sustainability reports, and statutory body publications for Bursa-listed companies, GLCs, and statutory bodies. The 40-person in-house team handles concept development, annual report copywriting, bilingual Bahasa Malaysia and English translation, layout design, infographic design, photography, interactive PDF, print production, and AGM-stage distribution under a single account team.
The companion guides in this cluster cover the related disciplines: annual report content for Bursa-listed companies for the disclosure floor and narrative architecture, elements of a sustainability report for the standalone sustainability format and the regulatory layering across MMLR, NSRF, and IFRS S1/S2, and the content marketing retainer for issuers whose annual report sits inside a wider corporate communications brief. Our publication portfolio carries the broader range of reports and books across sectors.
For issuers approaching the FY 2025 or FY 2026 NSRF adoption window, start the content and design conversation early so the sustainability statement is drafted alongside the financial close rather than after it. The three answers we need to scope an engagement are the financial year end, the AGM target, and whether NSRF Phase 1 applies. Talk to the team if your next reporting cycle is open and the brief is still being shaped.
Alissa Nazeri is the Account Director for Corporate Reporting at Walk Production, an integrated creative agency in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia. She leads the corporate reporting team and manages annual reports, sustainability reports, and integrated reports, including impact reporting work for Bank Islam, PIDM, and UNDP Malaysia, and annual reports for Swift Haulage.
