BAT IS OVERALL WINNER OF KPMG/THE EDGE SHAREHOLDER VALUE AWARDS 2007

Source from:  KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 15 (Bernama) - Saturday, August 16 08/18/2008

British American Tobacco (Malaysia) Bhd (BAT) emerged as the overall winner of the KPMG/The Edge Shareholder Value Awards 2007 winner for the sixth consecutive year. BAT, which is in the consumer market has good business model and with a low capital expenditure base it generates high profits on an annual basis, said KPMG's executive director financial risk management, Anita Menon. "The company also rewards the shareholders with good dividend payout. So, the key is how efficiently you manage your capital," she said after the award presentation ceremony here, today. Also present was Securities Commission's chairman, Datuk Zarinah Anwar. The KPMG shareholder value award program marks the seventh year KPMG's business advisory service division has surveyed and ranked the top 100 Malaysian listed companies according to value creation to its shareholders through the creation of Economic Profit (EP). The award programme is derived using the economic value management methodology to compute EP eligible companies. The EP value for eligible companies are then divided by its invested capital (IC). The EP/IC measures is used to rank the companies. The companies with the highest EP/IC within their respective industry categories are deemed sectoral winners and the overall winner award is the company with highest EP/IC amongst all the listed companies. KPMG's managing partner, Seow Yoo Lin, meanwhile said there has been an increasing trend among public listed companies in Malaysia to incorporate shareholders value creation in their management decisions. Anita also said that the average economic profit over invested capital in 2007 increased to 14.35 percent compared with 13.52 percent in 2006 indicating an upward trend in shareholder value generation. Enditem