The LMD 50 was the benchmark not only for listed companies in this country but also for other publications that present arbitrary versions of such rankings – they can only pretend to be superior in their presentation and methodology. And with the evolution of the nation’s pioneering rankings from The LMD 50 to the LMD 100 in financial year 2012/13, the gap between the pretenders and the ‘real thing’ so to speak has surely widened.
LMD’s rankings of leading listed companies are now firmly established as Sri Lanka’s version of the Fortune 500. Its roll of corporate honour is derived not on the basis of a formula that is kept under wraps for no apparent reason but in the belief that meaningful and consistent comparisons of diverse entities can only be made by their respective revenue streams.
The launch edition of the stand-alone version of The LMD 50 in 2003/04 was a huge success – its retail copies sold out with three months to go for the next edition’s release. So with just one edition under our belt, we turned The LMD 50 into a journal that stands on its own – and the rest as they say is history.
For well over a decade before the launch of this special issue, an estimated 30,000 readers of the pioneering business magazine that is LMD came to expect the premier rankings of the nation’s leading listed companies in its year-end Cover Supplement. One hopes that history will also register the birth of the extended rankings – the LMD 100 – six years ago.
As in the past, the LMD 100 special edition comes with a promise: to cover all angles – including the past, present and future; and the good, the bad and even the ugly of Sri Lanka’s business landscape. What’s more, there’s now even a ‘second board’ for Sri Lanka’s premier quoted corporations.
