With impeccable timing, Ivan Clark has moved out of the CEO's office to become non-executive deputy to chairman Murray Grindrod. New CEO Alan Olivier knows the Durban-based company intimately and has run a major division, and the transition appears to have been seamless.

Clark once told the FM that the key attribute in a senior executive is the ability to seal a deal, at the right time and on the right terms. The calls he made at the turn of the century, when shipping markets were in the doldrums, have helped to deliver extraordinary returns for investors.

More recently there has been diversification, with investment in land-based transport businesses (such as rail operator Sheltam) and port facilities. (Grindrod was also in top spot in 2005, but had to be omitted completely last year because of a mathematical anomaly: in that year, the five-year period for calculation of earnings per share and return on equity started in 1999, when Grindrod made a loss.)