Companies do best by being successful

YOUR story, “Who’s best at doing well by doing good” (June 1) refers. The best that companies can do is to make money for the pension funds, trade unions, struggling working moms, hard-pressed members of the middle class, employee share schemes and sundry widows, orphans and old-age pensioners that depend on them and pretty well makes up the entire population.

If they invest wisely, they will be in the bottom 10 companies you list on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) score card, not the top 10.

In a one-year review, eight of the top 10 ESG companies failed to beat the All Share index, some miserably so. Nedbank only just managed to shade the Alsi, and the top performer on the list returned a 12-month growth of 34%, which is attractive but hardly spectacular.

By contrast, only one company on the list of “worst” performing companies failed to beat the Alsi. Most effortlessly sailed past it and there were stellar performances recorded by Sibanye, Brait and PSG.

Over a five-year period, the companies at the top of the Business Times list hardly fared better. Woolworths returned 485%, but five companies fall dismally short of the Alsi.

Of the “worst” companies, six of the eight with five-year histories outperform the Alsi, five by well over double, and stellar performances are returned by Invicta and PSG. — Colin Bower, Prince Albert