Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on December 12, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Dagangan Bhd (PetDag) won the coveted The Edge Billion Ringgit Club (BRC) Company of the Year award, while Dialog Group Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri Dr Ngau Boon Keat was named this year’s Outstanding CEO (chief executive officer) and Value Creator.

The awards were presented at a gala dinner here yesterday, where PetDag was among 40 companies that scooped up a total of 59 company awards, recognising the performance of Malaysia’s biggest listed companies in terms of highest profit growth, return on equity, and total shareholder returns (capital gains plus yield) over three years.

“Set up in 1982 to drive Malaysia’s foray into the downstream petroleum products market, this company has made great strides after its listing on Bursa Malaysia in 1996. Today, it operates 1,000 petrol stations with over 700 Kedai Mesra, becoming a one-stop centre for fuelling, shopping and banking for motorists zig-zagging across the country. It has invested in research and development and together with Mercedes AMG makes the Petronas Syntium engine oil which powers the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One (F1) racing cars.

“But its impact is not confined only to Malaysian highways and F1 tracks around the world. The company has also achieved great financial success with strong recurring pre-tax profits averaging at RM1.2 billion a year between 2015 and 2017, while its market capitalisation has more than doubled from RM11.6 billion in 2010 to RM25 billion currently. It has been very generous to its shareholders, with dividend payouts of 60 sen per share in 2015, 70 sen in 2016 and a hefty 97 sen per share, or almost RM1 billion, in 2017,” The Edge Media Group publisher and CEO Datuk Ho Kay Tat said.

PetDag managing director and CEO Datuk Seri Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir received the award from Ho, who presented the awards alongside OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Bhd CEO Datuk Ong Eng Bin and Mercedes-Benz Malaysia president and CEO Dr Claus Weidner.

Syed Zainal attributed the company’s win to good efforts by its staff.

“I am thrilled. We think this is a result of our good efforts. Our investments in terms of good governance and delivering shareholder value have paid off. What’s important is to be consistent; being the Company of The Year in the Billion Ringgit Club is something very exciting for us, and we would like to thank The Edge for giving us this award, and also thank our shareholders and all the staff of Petronas Dagangan who have worked very hard,” he said.

Meanwhile, the year’s outstanding CEO was presented with the Master Ultra Thin Perpetual white-gold timepiece by Maxence Kinget, Jaeger-LeCoultre managing director of Southeast Asia and Oceania, and Ho.

In his introduction, Ho described Ngau as a young Malaysian engineer in Singapore who decided to “balik kampung” in 1975 to join the then newly set up national oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), at a time the industry was dominated by multinational corporations (MNCs).

“[Ngau] was the first Malaysian engineer from the oil industry to join Petronas and was part of the team that came up with the production-sharing contract (PSC) that Petronas still uses with MNCs today. The PSC benefited Malaysia not just in terms of oil revenue but also enabled a quick transfer of technology,” said Ho, who also noted the events leading to Dialog’s genesis and the company’s position as one of the pioneer investors in Pengerang, Johor, where it owns and operates petrochemicals, oil and liquefied natural gas storage terminals and a deep sea port.

“His stint at Petronas was disrupted in 1980 when he had to take over his late father’s timber business. But his industry calling was too strong and four years later he formed a small oil and gas (O&G) service company called Saga Holdings with three partners. In 1996, it listed on Bursa Malaysia as Dialog Group Bhd and today it is one of the biggest integrated O&G services companies in the region. Dialog’s market capitalisation today is around RM18 billion, up five times from RM3.6 billion in 2010,” Ho added.

Ngau dedicated his win as Outstanding CEO of the Year and Value Creator to the good work that his company had put in.

“We are extremely happy and also lucky to have won. This comes from our consistent hard work and commitment to our shareholders. We also want to thank The Edge for organising this event to recognise the good work that we have done, not only for our company but for our shareholders,” he said.

Last year, AirAsia Bhd was named Company of the Year, trailing Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd which received the award in 2016. Tenaga Nasional Bhd was the award recipient in 2015, while Dutch Lady Milk Industries Bhd won it in 2014. Prior to that, it was DiGi.Com Bhd (2013), Genting Bhd (2012), QL Resources Bhd (2011) and Supermax Corp Bhd (2010).

With the exception of Genting, Ho said seven out of the eight companies chosen as Company of The Year since 2010 have continued to outperform the FBM KLCI in terms of total shareholder returns. “This represents a 90% success rate in our selection of the Company of The Year,” he said in his welcome address.

Ho also noted 2018 as an “unprecedented year” for Malaysia.

“The historic change in government has had some immediate consequences for businesses, better for some and not so good for others. A clear economic strategy to take the country forward is still in the making. This uncertainty, together with the volatile global environment, presents many challenges to Corporate Malaysia. But as the saying goes, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough gets going’. I am confident that when we meet again next year I will be able to report that the best of Corporate Malaysia are still in good shape,” Ho said.

There are 170 The Edge BRC members this year, down from 184 last year and 176 in 2016. The all-time high was 185 in 2011.

To qualify as a member of The Edge BRC, the Bursa Malaysia-listed company must have at least RM1 billion market capitalisation as at March 31, 2018. The awards is in its ninth instalment this year.

“The total market cap of the 170 companies was, however, higher than that of the 184 companies last year — RM1.69 trillion versus RM1.59 trillion. The RM1.69 trillion constituted 90.8% of the total market cap of Bursa as at March 31, 2018,” Ho said.

Apart from recognising, honoring and celebrating “the biggest and best of Corporate Malaysia”, The Edge launched the awards in 2010 to inspire more companies to aspire to be a billion-ringgit companies.

According to Ho, BRC members made a collective pre-tax profit of RM123.19 billion in financial year 2017 (FY17), up 13.4% from RM108.6 billion in FY16. Collective net profit was RM90.7 billion in FY17, also up 13.4% from RM81.6 billion in FY16.

BRC members have continued to be major taxpayers, paying an estimated RM32.5 billion in taxes for FY17, Ho added.

“The numbers I just disclosed show that although the number of billion-ringgit companies on Bursa Malaysia fell from 184 to 170 this year, the performance of the 170, in terms of profitability and market capitalisation, was as a whole better than that of the 184 which made it to the list in 2017. This means that BRC members like all of you here are truly the strongest of Corporate Malaysia,” Ho said.

Besides financial performance, The Edge BRC awards also recognise corporate responsibility (CR) contributions.

Petronas Chemicals Group Bhd won the Best CR Initiatives award for Super Big Cap Companies with a market capitalisation of over RM40 billion. Sime Darby Bhd and Sime Darby Plantation Bhd came in top for the Best CR Initiatives for Big Cap Companies with a market capitalisation of RM10 billion to RM40 billion, while Sunway Bhd bagged the Best CR Initiatives award for companies with a market capitalisation below RM10 billion.

“We believe CR initiatives are important as Corporate Malaysia’s contribution to help nurture a more inclusive society. Profits should be shared with the less fortunate,” Ho said.

OCBC’s Ong said it was heartening to see how Corporate Malaysia has shown steady improvement in their respective environmental, social and governance (ESG) endeavours, with sustainability clearly on the agenda.

“Our heartiest congratulations to this year’s BRC winners for going the distance and improving significantly on all counts, including the important area of ESG. As we move further into the era of the new Malaysia, we trust businesses will always remember that our reason for existence is not purely to make profit, but to provide a meaningful service to humanity and the communities we serve. Ultimately, we ensure our sustainability by always placing stakeholder interests at the heart of our business agenda. Let’s never lose focus of this,” Ong said.

OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Bhd is the main sponsor of The Edge BRC for the ninth consecutive year. Other partners for The Edge BRC are Jaeger-LeCoultre (supporting sponsor) and Mercedes-Benz (official car partner).

Details of The Edge BRC members and award winners will be published in a special supplement in the Dec 17 issue of The Edge Malaysia weekly, out this Saturday.

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