Revealing the 20 finalists of PwC Malaysia’s Building Trust Awards 2021

KUALA LUMPUR, 1 September 2021 – PwC Malaysia is bringing back the Building Trust Awards this year to recognise and celebrate Malaysian companies that are making efforts to build trust with their stakeholders. This is the fourth Awards since its inception in 2015, and the first to be held virtually.

The first of its kind in Malaysia, the Awards was conceived to assess trust building efforts of businesses from two perspectives; what companies are saying about themselves through their corporate reporting, and also how stakeholders, including employees and the wider public, perceive them. Submissions or nominations are not solicited or accepted as part of the Awards’ independent assessment approach. 

This year, to reach a wider group of companies in Malaysia, all constituents of both the FBM KLCI 30 and FBM Mid 70 published on the Bursa Malaysia website as of 21 December 2020 were assessed  during the shortlisting stage. In previous years, only the top 50 companies (by market capitalisation) on Bursa Malaysia were considered. 

The finalists are (in alphabetical order):

From the FBM KLCI 30 Index [10 finalists]

Axiata Group Berhad
CIMB Group Holdings Berhad
IHH Healthcare Berhad
Malayan Banking Berhad
Maxis Berhad
MISC Berhad
PETRONAS
RHB Bank Berhad
Sime Darby Berhad
Telekom Malaysia Berhad

From the FBM Mid 70 Index [10 finalists]

Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad
Axis Reit Managers Berhad
Duopharma Biotech Berhad
Ekovest Berhad
KPJ Healthcare Berhad
MR D.I.Y. Group (M) Berhad
Sime Darby Property Berhad
SP Setia Berhad
UEM Sunrise Berhad
Yinson Holdings Berhad

The Building Trust Awards is part of a journey to encourage businesses to put trust at the top of their agenda. This initiative aligns with PwC’s new global strategy “The New Equation” which considers how clients are responding to the major shifts shaping the world, and why trust needs to be nurtured in these challenging times.

Soo Hoo Khoon Yean (Soo Hoo), PwC Malaysia Managing Partner said:

“Organising the Building Trust Awards while we are still in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic was an important decision for us at PwC. There is an urgent need to bolster faith in our institutions, including businesses, to keep the wheels of the economy turning. The pandemic has laid bare fundamental deficiencies in our global financial system and economies, weaknesses in business operating models and the challenges that will shape our world moving forward. As we have seen over the past year, companies have been put under a microscope on the way they have handled their response to the pandemic and how they consider ethics in decision-making. This has become the yardstick by which trust is measured.

The Awards represent our ongoing commitment to our purpose ‘To build trust in society and solve important problems’. The uncertain landscape we are living in reinforces that there is still much more work to be done for businesses to be seen as trusted institutions. We believe that trust is a tangible quality that can be measured and nurtured, and we hope that these Awards will provide a platform for us to encourage a stronger capital market, grounded on trust.” 

The Building Trust Awards methodology (see visual below) has evolved over the years, but the fundamentals remain to assess the quality of companies’ corporate reporting, and how they are perceived by their stakeholders.

Pauline Ho, PwC Malaysia Assurance Partner and Building Trust programme sponsor said:

“Because trust is never static, measuring trust can't be done in a vacuum. With trust issues dominating conversations in the public space, we're taking an AI-assisted approach to evaluate the perception of trust in finalists, around capability, responsibility, and transparency - elements of PwC Malaysia’s Trust Analytics framework.

Leadership culture remains a key area of interest to the trust agenda. We are collaborating with the Asia School of Business (ASB) to run a survey among employees of the shortlisted companies to assess how leaders foster a culture of trust at the workplace. As the public face of a company, leaders are in a pivotal position to role model behaviours and actions that uphold the organisation’s purpose and culture, for their stakeholders both internally and externally. This link between the strength of leadership and their effectiveness in creating an environment and organisational culture that is rooted in trust is what we’re looking to explore.”

In addition, the general public plays a crucial role in the Awards. By taking part in the public poll, they’re encouraged to weigh in on which companies they feel have done the most to build trust. The poll is open from 1-17 September 2021, and can be accessed at pwc.com/my/bta.

The results of the poll and the other components of the assessment will be deliberated by an independent panel of judges who will meet virtually and decide on the winners. They are:

• Sir David Tweedie (Past Chairman, Board of Trustees, International Valuation Standards Council)

• Nadiah Wan (Chief Executive Officer, Thomson Hospital Kota Damansara; Group Chief Executive Officer, TMC Life Sciences Berhad)

• Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift (Chief Executive Officer, Bursa Malaysia)

The winning companies will be announced in an Awards Ceremony towards the end of 2021. PwC’s Building Trust Awards is part of our wider Building Trust programme.

ENDS