This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on August 22, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: Leading budget carrier AirAsia Bhd is the winner of the coveted The Edge Billion Ringgit Club (BRC) Company of the Year award, while Westports Holdings Bhd executive chairman Tan Sri G Gnanalingam has been named this year’s Value Creator.

The awards were presented at a gala dinner here yesterday, where AirAsia was among 56 companies that scooped up a total of 81 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.

AirAsia co-founder and executive chairman Datuk Kamarudin Meranun received the award from The Edge Media Group publisher and chief executive officer (CEO) Ho Kay Tat, who presented the awards alongside OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Bhd CEO Datuk Ong Eng Bin, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia president and CEO Dr Claus Weidner, and Qatar Airways country manager for Malaysia and Brunei Datuk Muzammil Mohamad.

The year’s outstanding CEO was presented with the Master Ultra Thin Perpetual pink-gold timepiece by Maxence Kinget, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s managing director of Southeast Asia & Oceania, and Ho. Westports CEO Ruben Gnanalingam received the award on his father’s behalf.

This year, two special BRC awards were also given. The first went to Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), for being the first Bursa Malaysia-listed company to reach RM100 billion market capitalisation. Maybank was also presented with two business class return tickets to New York, courtesy of Qatar Airways.

The second special award went to Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd, for the public service done by its production of the 2016 movie Ola Bola.

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

There are 184 The Edge BRC members this year, eight more than last year, and just one less than the all-time high membership 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, 2017. The awards are in its eighth instalment this year.

“These 184 companies had a combined market cap of RM1.59 trillion as at March 31, a touch more than RM1.51 trillion in 2016. The RM1.59 trillion constituted 90.3% of the total market cap of Bursa at that point. It must be noted that since the March 31 cut-off, the combined market cap of these 184 companies had increased to RM1.61 trillion as at June 30,” Ho said in his welcome address.

Apart from celebrating excellence, Ho notes that The Edge launched the awards to inspire more companies to aspire to be a billion ringgit company.

“BRC members made a collective pre-tax profit of RM112.5 billion in financial year 2016 (FY16) compared with RM115.3 billion in FY15. Collective net profit was RM81.6 billion in FY16 compared with RM85.4 billion in FY15. FY16 profits were weighed lower by sizeable losses at several oil and gas and industrial/services companies.

“BRC members continue to be major taxpayers, paying an estimated RM30.9 billion in taxes for FY16 compared with RM29.8 billion for FY15 and RM30.7 billion for FY14. The taxes paid for FY16 were about 27% of the ‘more than RM114 billion’ direct taxes the Inland Revenue Board reportedly collected in 2016,” Ho added.

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

TNB won the Best CR Initiatives award for Super Big Cap companies with a market capitalisation of over RM40 billion. Telekom Malaysia Bhd came in top for the Best CR Initiatives for Big Cap Companies with a market capitalisation of RM10 billion to RM40 billion, while Allianz Malaysia 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.

“The success of BRC as the benchmark awards for corporate Malaysia would not be possible without the support of our partners,” Ho added.

OCBC’s Ong said the better performance in environment, sustainability and governance (ESG) among these large companies bodes well for corporate Malaysia.

“Our heartiest congratulations to this year’s BRC winners for outdoing themselves, most notably through the uptrend in ESG. As movers and shakers of the business world, they are the ones who set the tone, pace and the agenda for the future. And I am pleased to acknowledge that the right notes are indeed being sounded in an increasingly consistent manner. We must keep the momentum going so that the generations to come will view this as nothing less than the norm,” Ong said.

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

Details on The Edge BRC members and award winners will be published in a special supplement in the Aug 28 issue of The Edge Malaysia weekly, out this Saturday.