KUALA LUMPUR: Sime Darby Bhd has been voted the best managed company in Malaysia for a large cap while its president and group chief executive Tan Sri Mohd Bakke Salleh was named best executive for Malaysia in the Asiamoney’s list of Asia’s Best Managed Companies 2015.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Mohd Bakke said the recognition reflected investors’ confidence in the resilience of the company.

“We are very proud of these awards which speak volumes about the faith of our stakeholders and investors in the company and the management team of Sime Darby.

“While the company is facing challenging business conditions globally, we remain focused on consolidating and strengthening our financial position to add value for our shareholders,” Mohd Bakke said.

The annual awards are based on a poll carried out by Asiamoney which invites CEOs, CIOs and senior executives from fund management and senior analysts in brokerages across the Asia region to nominate the best managed listed companies in Asia and the best executive for each country.

The winning company is chosen based on product/service innovation, rising market share, leadership in its industry, financial performance, consistency of performance, executive leadership and corporate governance while the Best Executive award is based on personal leadership and vision, indispensability to organisation and management prowess.

Asiamoney, in its statement said amidst a tough environment for many of Sime Darby’s business lines, the company remained focussed on strengthening its balance sheet and continuous optimisation of the group with the latest acquisition and integration of New Britain Palm Oil.

While the group missed its own profit and revenue targets in 2015 due to the difficult economic climate, analysts praised Sime Darby’s management team as “prudent and capable” and highlighted its good corporate governance and resilience in the face of challenges.

As the best executive in Malaysia, Asiamoney described Mohd Bakke as non-flamboyant, frank and pragmatic with a preference to low-key presentations of facts to flights of fancy and focussing on clear communication and realism.

“As president director of one of Malaysia’s biggest listed companies since 2010, he has had to navigate tricky markets and a complex conglomerate structure.

“He was brought into the company at a difficult time and faced a challenge on his hands to stabilise the ship quickly. That he has been well regarded in doing so is a testament to his wealth of experience.

“His pragmatism has been sorely needed in recent times — at the firm’s recent full year 2015 results announcement, he freely admitted that the environment was a challenging one and it was impossible to know which way market conditions were headed. In this context, net profits of RM2.4bn compared to RM855m in the year in which he took over should be seen as something of an achievement,” the statement added.

Asiamoney, a financial publication established in 1989 merged with Euroweek Asia to form GlobalCapital. Asiamoney and EuroWeek Asia bring the most extensive debt market coverage and daily coverage of leveraged finance, corporate bonds and syndicated loans in the region.