Results of Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Awards in 2018

Adrian Gore, founder and CEO of Discovery Limited, received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Awards that were held at the Empire Venue in Parktown on 8 November.  Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd was announced as the 2018 Sunday Times Top Company for its share performance on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) over the past five years.  The Awards were presented in association with BCX.

The prestigious Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Awards are the most anticipated event on South Africa’s business calendar where industry leaders celebrate the JSE-listed companies that have delivered the highest returns for their shareholders over the past five years.

Uri Levine, co-founder of Waze delivered the keynote address at the black-tie gala dinner, which was attended by the country’s most prominent business leaders and decision makers.

The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Lifetime Achiever Award is decided by a high profile independent panel, and Gore joins an esteemed list of previous Lifetime Achiever Award recipients including Dr Patrice Motsepe, Dr Johann Rupert, Dr Christo Wiese, Bobby Godsell, Brian Joffe, Nelson Mandela, Allan Gray, Stephen Koseff, Richard Maponya, Bill Venter, Nthato Motlana, Donald Gordon, Sam Motsuenyane, Koos Bekker, Raymond Ackerman and Anton Rupert. In 2010, Gore also received the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Business Leader of the Year award.

Sunday Times editor, Bongani Siqoko, with Adrian Gore, recipient of the Lifetime Achiever Award

Gore launched Discovery in 1992, as a healthcare provider which has since diversified to become a multinational financial services group. In 1997, Discovery listed on the JSE.  Gore is a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa, a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries (Edinburgh), an Associate of the Society of Actuaries (Chicago), and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He chairs the South African chapter of Endeavor – a global non-profit organisation that identifies and assists high-growth entrepreneurs, and sits on the World Economic Forum Global Health Advisory Board, as well as the Massachusetts General Hospital Global Health Advisory Board.

“In an age where everyone and their dog is talking about disruptors and their impact on established businesses, Gore is perhaps the most successful in that regard and landed on the SA business scene some 26 years ago. It sounds pretty strange that at only 54, he is getting a Lifetime Achievement award, but in those 26 years he has reshaped a market segment long dominated by giants that are more than 100 years old in some cases. For these players, an even scarier prospect is that he still has the energy for another 20 years and with the imminent launch of Discovery Bank, even our established bankers will now be looking over their shoulder,” says Ron Derby, editor of Business Times.

The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Award, which this year went to Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd, is calculated on share-price performance on a R10 000 investment from 1 September 2013 to the end of August 2018, after taking into account normal and special dividends and bonus shares reinvested. As of this year, the winning company was required to have held a market capitalisation of R5 Billion as of 1 September 2013.

Sunday Times editor, Bongani Siqoko, with Gerrie Fourie of Capitec Bank Holdings

Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd (JSE: CPI) opened at R185.00 in 2013, and closed at R1,002.75 at the end of August 2018, with an annual compound growth of 42.65%.  This means that R10,000 invested in 2013 would have delivered R59,064 in 2018. Sappi Ltd (JSE: SAP) and Clicks Group Ltd (JSE: CLS) came in second and third place respectively.

The results of the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies will be published in the newspaper on 11 November 2018.

Results are calculated on a capital gain, plus earnings reinvested into shares, over five years as a compound return on original investment with a starting a minimum market capitalisation of R5 billion or more.

All results verified by Deloitte.

The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies in South Africa for 2018 are: