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East Capital announced November 10 that the winners of its 2011 awards that recognise the most outstanding companies within Central and Eastern Europe are Turkish Airlines, DO & CO Restaurants & Catering, and Mostotrest.

"The East Capital Awards were established to recognise and reward the huge potential and progress of companies in Eastern Europe, where we are active investors," said Peter Elam Hakansson, chairman of the Central and Eastern European fund manager. "We conduct over 1,200 company visits every year to track this talent, and maintain a strong network of contacts with companies and decision makers in the region. We have been highly impressed with the progress of each of this year's winners and congratulate them on their continued success."

The East Capital Awards recognise the most outstanding companies within CEE across three categories: Best Growth, Best IPO and Discovery of the Year.

Turkish Airlines won the Best Growth Award. Since 2003, Turkish Airlines has tripled its fleet size, grown the number of passengers by on average 18% per year and increased its revenues even during the worst of the global financial crisis in 2008-2009, according to East Capital. As a result of this consistent growth, the company became the fourth largest carrier in Europe and doubled its market share from 2005.

DO & CO Restaurants & Catering, which began as a restaurant in Vienna in 1981 and today provides premium hospitality and catering services internationally, was awarded Best IPO. DO & CO's $90m listing on the Istanbul Stock Exchange on December 2 was oversubscribed by more than 11x by foreign investors and more than 8x overall. As of September 30, the shares were up by 57% from the IPO price, outperforming the benchmark index by 74% since the IPO.

The Discovery of the Year Award was won by Mostotrest, a builder of roads, bridges, airports and railways in Russia. Mostotrest is a key player in the massive infrastructure building effort going on in the country, including for the Sochi Olympics in 2014. From 2006 to 2010, revenues grew fivefold to $2.5bn and the company has an order book of $9bn, according to East Capital.