Mittal

The "world's number one steel company", Mittal, won the award for large enterprises in this category. The jury praised the company's ability to anticipate growing demand in steel and with that the much-discussed acquisition of BEB Europe 2005 winner, Arcelor. Jury members felt that Mittal had succeeded in penetrating high-end steel markets and expected the company to move into Russian and Asian markets shortly. Its 'buy and build' strategy of acquiring underperforming companies and restructuring these from the bottom up created the type of value shareholders were looking for.

TomTom

In the SME section of this award category, TomTom emerged as the winner. According to the jury, it had "shown true leadership in a niche market of the highly competitive consumer electronics sector. The jury recognized the company's impressive marketing efforts in the EU, US and Australian markets and praised its flexible business model, which made optimal use of outsourcing. The company was also lauded for its innovative use of existing technologies, which excelled in anticipating customer demand.

DSM

According to the jury, "innovation has been at the core of DSM's corporate identity for a long time." The inclusion of the moniker "Unlimited" in the company logo could not be more apt: DSM has gone from being a mining company to producing bulk and fine chemicals and more recently, nutritional and pharmaceutical ingredients along with performance materials and industrial chemicals today. The jury highlighted DSM's capacity to continuously introduce new products to its line and commercialize these effectively. Its drive to innovate could also be seen in its cooperation agreements with major universities in the Netherlands and its pursuit of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) with the Dutch government.

Stage Entertain-ment

On the other side of the spectrum is SME winner in this category, Stage Entertainment.The international entertainment group has produced award-winning musicals across the globe, with a focus on Europe and the US. Members of the jury recognized the company's achievements in devising an innovative strategy consisting of high-quality entertainment through its own licensed productions, the international ticket and marketing organization and the its network of theater locations in different countries. Founder Joop van den Ende received additional praise for the creation of his 'Cross Media Fund' (with Deitmers Venture Capital) to focus on the development of new companies in the telecommunications, TV, media and gaming sectors.

ABN AMRO

Banking giant ABN AMRO won the large enterprise award in this category. With the award the jury recognized "ABN AMRO's acquisition of Antonveneta with its ability to "navigate the treacherous waters of the Italian banking market in spite of fierce political resistance," earned them the recognition of the jury. This was one of the first major cross-border banking acquisitions, which will likely have a resounding impact on the highly fragmented Italian market and see the introduction of more competitive products and services.

TenCate

TenCate, the manufacturer of protective and industrial fabrics, aerospace and armor composites and geosynthetics, inched out ahead of the competition for its successful acquisition of Polyfelt. The jury's verdict highlighted Polyfelt's fit with TenCate's 'buy-and-build' strategy. It was particularly impressed by the way TenCate handled Polyfelt's integration into the company and its choice of management and reporting structure. With this acquisition, TenCate will be able to enhance its growth in the polysynthetics area and increase its distribution network in CEE and Asia.