The magic has not stopped in the media sector, and Naspers continues to lead the herd in areas such as profits and acquisitions. It is by far the biggest and most profitable media company in Africa, and that status is likely to remain unchallenged for some time.

The group has interests in print, pay television and the Internet. It is the majority shareholder in the monopolistic satellite television company, MultiChoice, which runs DStv, and has operations in most parts of Africa, Greece and Cyprus.

Since the last Top Companies survey (June 2005), Naspers grew its net profits by a phenomenal 128% while total assets increased 35%.

Its performance has been achieved on the back of growth in most business units, led by pay-TV and its Internet messaging business in China.

Spurred by successes in Greece and the Far East, Naspers has now also acquired a 30% interest in leading Brazilian media company Abril, for a cash consideration of US$422m. The deal was done through offshore subsidiary MIH BV.

Abril has a good dividends policy, meaning that Naspers coffers would soon swell with Brazilian reis. The company generates revenues of about R7bn and Ebitda of above R1,3bn annually.

The pecking order in the sector remains the same as in the last Top Companies report, with Johnnic Communications (Johncom) coming in as the second most profitable company after Naspers. The net profit of R500m was a huge jump from the R216m reported last year.

Johncom has now fully consolidated itself after its unbundling from Johnnic Holdings in early 2005, and the acquisition of some newspaper titles from Nail, including Sowetan and Sunday World.

Primedia and Caxton remain important players in the sector. Caxton has increased its free-sheet market, venturing into townships like Soweto.

Primedia continued with its convergence strategy, investing in companies that would offer platforms in the mobile-content spectrum.

Even a small player like Moneyweb has started moving out of the doldrums of losses experienced two years ago due to some poor market judgment.

The sector has been lacking in real corporate action, the closest smell of drama being a relatively small investment player - PSG Capital - making a bid for Naspers's controlling structure. PSG made a bid for Naspers's high voting A-shares. These Naspers shares are mostly held by Keeroomstraat directors, who also happen to control most of Naspers.

As a result of PSG's bid, Sanlam saw the value of its 13,9% holding of Naspers A shares jump from R500 000 (which Naspers has maintained to be the true valuation in the past few years) to almost R270m (based on what Naspers directors Koos Bekker and Cobus Stofberg paid Sanlam for 6,5% of its Naspers A shares).

Maybe the biggest disappointment has been Johncom's failure to hook a major shareholder and empowerment partners.

Because of the good economic environment, this sector will continue to produce winning companies, provided managements keep their eyes on the ball.