The key shareholder communique for companies around the world is getting better, according to an industry newsletter.

In its August issue, Sid Cato's Newsletter on Annual Reports said that one in eight reports -- 12% -- has achieved what he calls "world-class" status. That is, score at least 100 of a potential 135 points against his copyrighted criteria, in existence since 1984.

Cato said this is twice the 1994 showing, when only 6% of the world's annuals performed so well.

He attributed "improvement in the economy, including the increasing riches of employee-stockholders, as well as growing acceptance of the annual report's importance to a corporation's various audiences."

Cato's August issue, No. 168, concludes his 14th year of publication. He introduced the monthly in September 1983.

Subscribers range from corporate chieftains to communications officers, in countries from Japan to Australia, New Zealand to Finland, Sweden, Israel, the U.K. and Taiwan.