This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 12, 2019

Corporations that not only survived but thrived in the difficult economic environment in recent years deserve recognition. The Edge Media Group, together with banking outfit CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, property developer Matrix Concepts Holdings Bhd and Hublot (represented by The Hour Glass Sdn Bhd in Malaysia), is doing just that.

“The Edge Malaysia Centurion Club Corporate Awards are aimed at discovering and turning the spotlight on smaller companies that match multibillion-ringgit conglomerates in performance,” The Edge Media Group publisher and group chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Ho Kay Tat said.

CIMB is the latest  to jointly support this exclusive initiative of The Edge Malaysia Centurion Club as presenter of the awards.

“We are pleased to be part of this inaugural effort by The Edge to recognise these companies commited to running their businesses well and chalking up commendable growth in the past three years, but have hitherto remained under the radar. The Edge-CIMB collaboration could not have come at a more opportune time, particularly to spark more investor interest in these companies,” said CIMB group CEO Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz (pic).

“With CIMB’s support of The Edge Malaysia Centurion Club Corporate Awards, we hope to also reach out to and support these companies to further strengthen their capabilities and become more competitive, sustainable and resilient in today’s gig economy.”

The corporate awards will be presented to the country’s best-performing small and medium enterprises at a gala dinner today, with Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng as the guest of honour.

The corporate awards are for Company of the Year as well as three main categories across 12 sectors.

The categories:

The 12 sectors:

To be eligible for the corporate awards, a member of The Edge Malaysia Centurion Club must be listed for at least four calendar years before the cut-off date of end-March of the current year as companies are evaluated on financial performance over three years.

The methodology is stringent and transparent, with the results audited by Deloitte Malaysia.

Members eligible for the Highest Return on Equity over Three Years and Highest Growth in Profit After Tax over Three Years awards must be profitable for every year of the evaluation period. For this year’s awards, the evaluation period is from financial years 2015 to 2018.

The calculation of profit after tax (PAT) growth is subject to a risk-weight factor component to recognise the importance of consistency in profit delivery throughout the evaluation period.

The Highest Returns to Shareholders award is calculated based on total returns consisting of share price gains and dividends over three years subject to a share price multiplier. The cut-off date for this year was March 29.

The Edge Malaysia Centurion Club Company of the Year will be determined by an evaluation component and weightage to the overall score:

To be a member of the elite The Edge Malaysia Centurion Club, a company must be listed on Bursa Malaysia as at March 31 of the current calendar year, should neither be suspended nor be on Bursa’s watch list, and must not be delisted before the date of the awards. It must have a market capitalisation of RM100 million to below RM1 billion.

Financial data used by The Edge to determine the member companies of The Edge Malaysia Centurion Club and winners of the awards are provided by Asia Analytica Data Sdn Bhd (formerly known as The Edge Markets Sdn Bhd).

The Edge Malaysia Centurion Club now has 423 members and its annual listing will be published by The Edge.