The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Awards aims to celebrate the JSE-listed companies that have delivered the highest returns for their shareholders over the past five years. 

The 2019 awards were held at the Empire Venue in Parktown on Thursday, 8 November and were presented in association with BCX. 

Uri Levine, co-founder of Waze, delivered the keynote address at the black-tie gala dinner, which was attended by prominent business leaders and decision makers.

The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Lifetime Achiever Award is decided by an independent panel, and Gore joins a list of previous Lifetime Achiever Award recipients, including Dr Patrice Motsepe, Dr Johann Rupert, Dr Christo Wiese, Bobby Godsell, Brian Joffe, Nelson Mandela, Allan Gray, Stephen Koseff, Richard Maponya, Bill Venter, Nthato Motlana, Donald Gordon, Sam Motsuenyane, Koos Bekker, Raymond Ackerman and Anton Rupert.

In 2010, Gore also received the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Business Leader of the Year Award.

Gore launched Discovery in 1992 as a healthcare provider that has since diversified to become a multinational financial services group. In 1997, Discovery listed on the JSE.

Gore is a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa, a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries (Edinburgh), an Associate of the Society of Actuaries (Chicago) and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries.

He chairs the South African chapter of Endeavor – a global non-profit organisation that identifies and assists entrepreneurs and sits on the World Economic Forum Global Health Advisory Board, as well as the Massachusetts General Hospital Global Health Advisory Board.

"In an age where everyone and their dog is talking about disruptors and their impact on established businesses, Gore is perhaps the most successful in that regard and landed on the South African business scene some 26 years ago," says Ron Derby, editor of Business Times.

Derby adds, "It sounds pretty strange that at only 54, he is getting a Lifetime Achievement Award. But in those 26 years, he has reshaped a market segment long dominated by giants that are more than 100 years old in some cases."

"For these players, an even scarier prospect is that he still has the energy for another 20 years and, with the imminent launch of Discovery Bank, even our established bankers will now be looking over their shoulder," says Derby.

The Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Award, which went to Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd, is calculated on share-price performance on a R10 000 investment from 1 September 2013 to the end of August, after taking into account normal and special dividends and bonus shares reinvested.

As of 2018, the winning company was required to have held a market capitalisation of R5-billion as of 1 September 2013.

Capitec Bank Holdings Ltd (JSE: CPI) opened at R185 in 2013, and closed at R1 002.75 at the end of August, with an annual compound growth of 42.65%. This means that R10 000 invested in 2013 would have delivered R59 064 in 2018. Sappi Ltd (JSE: SAP) and Clicks Group Ltd (JSE: CLS) came in second and third place respectively.

The results of the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies will be published in the newspaper on Sunday, 11 November.

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