Do SA companies have to list offshore to play on the world stage? It certainly looks that way when examining the list of SA giants - the largest companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) measured by turnover.

The top four all have a primary or secondary listing on an offshore stock market (Sasol has a secondary listing in New York). Old Mutual, in ninth position in the giants' list but SA's largest company measured by assets (see "SA Giants" table), also has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Other prominent companies with a primary or secondary listing offshore include Dimension Data, Investec, Naspers, Telkom and Gold Fields.

A look at Forbes magazine's latest Global 2 000 rankings also suggests that to be a multinational you have to find a stock market address in London or New York.

The commodities boom has clearly been a boon to JSE-listed resources groups, as has been the generally steady rand over the past seven years.

Not surprisingly, resources companies with SA links have been making most of the running in recent years. BHP and Anglo have made substantial gains on the LSE - BHP's share has risen by almost 140% since January last year, Anglo's by a more pedestrian 60%.

Having BHP listed on the JSE ensures that SA shareholders have access to the world's largest and most profitable mining companies.

In global terms ArcelorMittal is a larger company than BHP. ArcelorMittal's turnover looks set to reach US$120bn in the current financial year, more than double BHP's. But JSE investors only have access to the local operation, whose revenues for this year are likely to come in at just over R30bn.

SA giants with an offshore listing have done well because they are held to account by the fact that they are competing for investors with the world's best companies. As importantly, they have become familiar names to financial markets in Europe in particular.

Undoubtedly SA's most successful multinational corporation is SABMiller. It now has brewing interests and distribution agreements in over 60 countries across six continents and is also the second-largest bottler of Coca-Cola products.

SABMiller nurtures its brands, which is the key to its global success. After its acquisition spree of the past decade, the group now has a number of multinational brands - Miller, Peroni, Pilsner Urquell and Castle Lager among them - but has maintained national brands where they have a loyal following.

Apart from branding, another strong weapon in SABMiller's armoury is a template that has evolved to be called the "SAB Way". It is based on successful management strategies employed during CEO Graham Mackay's tenure at the SA operation. Locally nurtured managers are employed in key positions around the world to transfer knowledge. Unlike many companies that globalise brands, the brewer globalises its people.

The US remains one of the few markets where SABMiller hasn't had an easy ride, as the dominant Anheuser-Busch uses every trick in the book to retain its dominant market share.

This has led many critics to suggest that SABMiller (and other large SA companies for that matter) tend to battle in markets where there is fierce competition. There is an element of truth in this. Two markets have proved difficult for SA companies in their global forages: the US, particularly for financial services firms; and Australia, for retailers.

From Discovery to Old Mutual, Sage to Investec, the US has chewed up and spat out a string of SA companies. Medical aid firm Discovery has been struggling to mirror the success of its health care model in the US and is reviewing its expansion.

Invariably, SA companies also underestimate the amount of working capital they need to put into US operations or their global expansion in general. Financial services companies, in particular, have struggled. Distribution networks for financial products have to be formed and then marketed. That takes big upfront expenses.

An alternative that many have followed is to buy into the US market by purchasing a business there that already has traction. But here, too, SA companies often go wrong, as they try to compete with bidders from the US, Europe and the Far East, whose cost of capital is invariably lower.

Old Mutual and Investec have had a much better experience across the Atlantic Ocean. Old Mutual has used its London base to expand across Europe, including the acquisition of Sweden's Skandia, while Investec has quickly built a reputation as a leading niche merchant banker. There are a number of reasons for this. Most importantly, South Africans are far more familiar with the British business and social culture.

MTN is one of the few companies that has had phenomenal international success, and doesn't have a primary or secondary listing abroad.

Founded in 1994, MTN is what investors term a "pure emerging market play". But that terminology tends to downplay what can only be described as high-risk locations. Countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Liberia and Yemen are not for faint-hearted investors, but to date MTN has made a success of all its investments.

Dealing with political risk has become second nature for MTN MD Phuthuma Nhleko. "To date, political issues have not been prohibitive to MTN realising its expansion objectives and opportunities, and I hope that remains the case," he said last year.