PETRONAS remains Malaysia’s Most Valuable Brand while Digi beats Celcom this year

Every year, leading brand valuation and strategy consultancy Brand Finance puts thousands of the world’s top brands to the test, evaluating which are the most powerful and valuable, publishing the Brand Finance Top 100 Malaysia Brands.

Malaysia’s Top 10 most valuable brands

Rank, Brand Sector (Brand value USDm) Brand rating

1. Petronas (Oil&Gas) 13,318 AAA

2. Maybank (Banks) 4,209 AAA

3. Genting (Hotels) 3,048 AA-

4. Sime Darby (Food) 2,808 A+

5. Tenaga Nasional (Utilities) 2,490 AAA

6. Public Bank (Banks) 2,192 AAA

7. CIMB (Banks) 2,076 AAA-

8. DiGi (Telecoms) 1,546 AAA

9. Maxis (Telecoms) 1,406 AA+

10. AirAsia (Airlines) 1,364 AAA-

PETRONAS, Maybank & Genting continue to dominate the top 3 rankings in 2019 once again with a combined brand value of over US$20 billion.

PETRONAS continues to stay on top to be the first US$ 13.31 billion brand in Malaysia. Maybank maintains its #2 spot with a brand value of US$ 4.20 billion followed by #3 ranked Genting which had a brand value of US$ 3.04 billion highlighting the significant gap between the top 2 brands.

The US$ 34.4 billion combined value of top 10 brands make up for 61% of the total value of the top 100. This shows the significant effort required by the brands outside of top 10 in terms of brand strength improvement and revenue growth if they wish to compete in the top 10 space.

Digi ousted Celcom to clinch the title of the strongest Malaysian brand with its brand rating being upgraded from AAA- to AAA.

Digi is now one of only four Malaysian Brands with the AAA brand rating.The brand value gap between #1 and #2 in 2019 has widened to an astronomical figure of US$ 9 billion making it hard to displace PETRONAS from their #1 position.

PETRONAS also became the most improved brand with an increase of absolute value of US$ 1,817 million this year.

There are six new entrants coming into this year Top 100 rankings namely Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Parkway Pantai, FFM Group, Golden Screen Cinemas, Hiap Teck Venture and KNM.

The highest intangible value brand is Padini with a brand value to Enterprise value ratio of 76%, highlighting the role of brand for business success.

Samir Dixit, Managing Director of Brand Finance Asia Pacific highlighted that “PETRONAS is in a very strong position and it will continue to grow its brand strength and brand value while the Malaysia brands have grown considerably well overall. It is the brand strength for most brands that remains a concern.

“Also, the rankings remain very top heavy with 61% of the total brand value contributed by the Top 10 brands and 93% contributed by the Top 50 brands. We would like to see a more diverse mix at the top and more significant value increase at the bottom which means other brands must start focusing on their value and brand strength.”

Samir Dixit also challenged the Malaysia companies to be more brand-driven and not sales or offers-driven. These while help sell in the short term, might destroy the long term value and the strength of the brand. Brand has to be a strategic agenda for the senior management and boards and must be managed like any other business asset and not just a legal trademark.”

The Focus on Brand Strength

The brand strength, measured by Brand Strength Index (‘BSI’), a more accurate measure of brands competitiveness in the market, has remained stagnant for most Malaysian brands and while they may be doing well locally, they have been losing out to some of the key competitors in the region as they lack competitiveness outside of Malaysia market.

Digi made a significant jump to oust the strongest competitor and managed to clinch the title of the strongest Malaysian Brand as one of only four brands attaining triple-A brand rating.

Other brands with the triple-A brand rating following closely behind Digi are Petronas, Maybank and Public Bank.