This is a real mixture of businesses, with three subsectors. In terms of market capitalisation, it's dominated by Bidvest, which is larger than the rest of the entire sector combined, including Mvela Group.

In the old days, Bidvest would have been referred to as a conglomerate, or industrial holding company. It has defied the odds by not slimming down and focusing on "core" areas.

Bidvest is a diversified trading and distribution company. Other than food service, which is mainly based in Europe and Australia, the divisions are based in South and Southern Africa. In terms of turnover, only Anglo, BHP Billiton, SABMiller and Sasol are bigger.

It's been referred to, rather disparagingly, as "Brian Joffe's private equity company". Joffe has created, in less than 20 years, something that would ordinarily have taken many decades to achieve.

One wonders, however, what Bidvest would be like without him. Its management is strong in depth, but there's nobody immediately apparent with anything approaching his charisma and skill.

The company has produced excellent returns over the years - return on equity currently stands at almost 48%, with a five-year average of nearly 22% - and yet its share price has done very little in the recent past. In fact, it's fallen by almost 25% since its peak of just under R150 in early 2007. Investors are obviously concerned that, at Bidvest's size, it will be difficult for earnings growth to significantly outperform the market.

Mvela Group is the company that Tokyo Sexwale built. Like Bidvest, it has a range of interests. Apart from buying Allan Gray's holding in Avusa this year, it also controls Business Century Publishing, the company that publishes Maverick and Empire.

The Mvela share price has performed well this year. Since its recent low of just over R40 at end-December 2007, the stock has risen by more than 50%.

A few years ago, Mvela was the Top Companies Top Performer. It reached that position partly because of a favourable base effect on listing.

At the time of going to press, Mvela executive director Mark Willcox had announced he was resigning as CEO but that he would remain on the board in a nonexecutive capacity. Willcox is regarded by many as the architect of Mvela's many acquisitions and it will be interesting to see what role he plays in future.

A new addition to the sector last year was Kelly Group, an employment agency. This company has enjoyed great earnings growth, but it's not reflected in the share price, which has been in decline virtually since listing. Given the acute skills shortage in SA, Kelly's success seems assured.

Adcorp is in a similar space to Kelly, though it has other strings to its bow. It's also a lot larger than Kelly and has been listed far longer. Along with Bidvest, Mvela and Iliad, it's in a small group in the sector that has a market capitalisation of more than R1bn.

Iliad is incongruous in this sector. It should more naturally be included alongside Cashbuild in the general retailers sector. And like Cashbuild, it should benefit from the long-term trend in home improvement that is likely to continue for years to come - even though house prices are now cooling.