This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 13, 2023 - November 19, 2023

I bid you a warm welcome to the 2023 chapter of The Edge Billion Ringgit Club (BRC) Awards. This once-a-year gala dinner started in 2010 as an initiative by The Edge Malaysia to recognise, honour and celebrate the biggest and best of Corporate Malaysia — we believe this is possibly the only time in the year that top executives of companies across all sectors listed on Bursa Malaysia are gathered together for an evening like this.

Dinner invitations are extended to BRC members as recognition of having earned a place as a company with at least RM1 billion in market capitalisation as at our March 31 cut-off date.

I stress again that the awards are given purely on merit and cannot be bought because they are meant to spur continued excellence. Companies and individuals that win the awards must truly be deserving and acknowledged by peers.

The BRC awards methodology is transparent and the results are independently audited by Deloitte Malaysia.

We have stressed the importance of Corporate Responsibility (CR) since the inception of our BRC awards 13 years ago — well before ESG became a buzzword — not only by acknowledging CR efforts but also incorporating scores when selecting The Edge BRC Company of the Year.

This year, based on the March 31, 2023, cut-off date, there were 181 companies which made it into the BRC, down from our all-time high of 186 in 2021, but still slightly higher than the 178 last year.

The total market cap of the 181 companies, however, was slightly lower compared with 2021 and 2022 at RM1.49 trillion this year versus RM1.58 trillion in 2022 and RM1.59 trillion in 2021. The all-time high was RM1.69 trillion in 2018 when there were 170 members.

The RM1.49 trillion made up 90.4% of Bursa Malaysia’s market cap as at March 31, 2023.

BRC members continue to be major taxpayers, collectively paying over RM42 billion in taxes to the government from the RM145 billion in pre-tax profits they made in 2022 — this is just over half the total company tax of RM82 billion collected by the government last year.

More importantly, the collective pre-tax profits of RM145 billion they made in 2022 is a sharp rebound from the two pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 of RM46 billion and RM95.8 billion respectively.

What this means is that BRC members have returned stronger than ever, proving the resilience of Corporate Malaysia. Congratulations.

The success of BRC as the benchmark awards for Corporate Malaysia would not be possible without the support of our partners and I would like to acknowledge them.

OCBC Malaysia has been our main partner since inception and I would like to thank its CEO Tan Chor Sen and his team for their continued support.

Our official car partner for the past nine years is Mercedes-Benz and our appreciation to Amanda Zhang, the president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Malaysia and head of region, Southeast Asia II, and her team.

Our appreciation also to Tay Liam Khoon, managing director of Cortina Watch Malaysia, and Antoine Berardi, country manager of Cartier Malaysia, for their partnership since 2021.

Malaysia and the world have gone through a lot these past few years. Many challenges remain — and new ones have emerged — as we can see from the news every day.

If fire is the test of gold and adversity of strong men, or in our case, corporations, then many BRC winners have proven their worth — with not just resilient financial performance but also commitment towards sustainable practices and building value that lasts beyond quarterly and annual performances.

Congratulations to all winners. We look forward to hosting you again next year.

Save by subscribing to us for your print and/or digital copy.

P/S: The Edge is also available on Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play.