Seven companies crowned the royals by Sunday Times Business Times Top 100 companies survey

Seven companies have been crowned the royal companies by the Sunday Times Business Times Top 100 Companies Survey at a recent gala awards ceremony held at Sandton Convention Centre. The companies were honoured because they have appeared in the Top 100’s Top 20 for three consecutive years. This year they include DigiCore, Highveld Steel & Vanadium, Distribution & Warehousing Network, Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon, Grindrod, PSG Group and Group Five.

“Not only does this reflect the consistent strong growth of these companies, but also the growth of construction and related companies over the past few years,” says Paul Stober, editor of Sunday Times Business Times.

Other key awards include the Business Leader of the Year and the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Business Leader of the Year is a prestige award as it is one of very few decided on by the winner’s peers.

Business Times provides the CEOs of the Top 100 companies with a list of candidates, and they vote for a winner from that list — or someone else entirely, should they so decide.

This year’s winner, Johann Rupert, put together a significant restructuring, resulting in one of the biggest listings on the JSE — British American Tobacco.

His Business Leader of the Year achievement follows that of Brian Joffe, Graham Mackay,

Maria Ramos, Jacko Maree, Sean Summers and Patrice Motsepe.

This year, Business Times awarded the Lifetime Achievement award to entrepreneur Richard Maponya, whose career culminated, at a ripe old age, in the opening of Maponya Mall.

The decision was made in consultation with a panel of independent heavy hitters, knowledgeable about top SA companies and the economy.

The panel included Michael Spicer, the CEO of Business Leadership SA and a director of

Anglo American SA; Thina Siwendu, director of law firm Siwendu & Partners and a corporate governance specialist; Reg Rumney, director at the Centre for Economics Journalism in Africa at Rhodes University; Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya; and Business Times editor Paul Stober.

Previous winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Nelson Mandela (a special award last year), Bill Venter, Nthato Motlana, Donald Gordon, Koos Bekker, Sam Motsuenyane, Raymond Ackerman and Anton Rupert.

The Business Times Top 100 Companies Survey was published in the Sunday Times.