London, UK

In April of this year, the marketing research firm Millward Brown, released the third annual Top 100 Brandz list. According to the report, companies that own the brands in this top 100 list “have significantly outperformed the stock market when compared to the S&P 500”. The rankings are based on analysis of financial data of the companies studies from Jan 2,2007 to Dec 31,2007 and interviews conducted with customers worldwide.

The top global brand name in this list is Google (GOOG) with a brand value of $86.0B. Coca-Cola (KO) is listed as fourth with a brand value of $58.0B. Other companies in the top 10 are General Electric (GE), Microsoft(MSFT), China Mobile, IBM (IBM), Apple(APPL), McDonald’s (MCD), Nokia (NOK) and Marlbaro. In this article we will review “The Top 10 British Brands” and the companies that own them.

The The Top 10 British Brands in the order of “Brand Value”are:

1. Vodafone (VOD)
2. Tesco (TSCDY)
3. HSBC (HBC)
4. Marks & Spencer
5. Barclays (BCS)
6. Standard Chartered Bank
7. BP (BP)
8. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)
9. Asda
10. Natwest

Some of the companies that own the above brands trade in the US. A brief overview of these stocks follows:

1. Vodafone (VOD) is a mobile telecom service provider with a customer base of 269 million in Asia, Europe, USA, the Middle East and Africa. VOD has a dividend yield of 8.57%. The PE ratio is 10.15 and the company has a market cap of $125.0B. The annual dividend growth rate is 31.6% for the past 5 years.

2. Tesco (TSCDY) is a retailer (grocery) with operations in the UK, Europe and Asia. Tesco’s ADR stock trades on the OTC market. Total revenue has been rising over the past 5 years due in part to the rise in global food prices. The current dividend yield is 4.44%.

3. HSBC (HBC) is a money center bank that serves 128 million customers worldwide. The dividend yield is 4.42% and the earnings growth in the past 5 years is about 25%. HBC is one of the few British banks to have limited impact from the current credit crisis.

4. Marks & Spencer – This famous retailer trades on the London Stock Exchange with ticker MKS.L.

5. Another global bank based in the UK is Barclays (BCS) . The stock pays a 5.72% dividend yield and is down about 40% in 52 weeks due to the global meltdown in financials. Barclays owns iShares, the world’s largest and best known ETF provider.

6. Standard Chartered Bank – StanChart does not have an ADR but is listed on the LSE with ticker STAN.L

7. BP (BP) is one of the world’s largest integrated oil and gas producers. The dividends for EPS have increased at an annual rate of 24.5% and 12% in the past 5 years. BP pays a great 6.07% dividend.

8. The holding company Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) owns the Royal Bank of Scotland and National Westminster Bank Plc which is number ten in the list above. Last year RBS together with Banco Santander (STD) and Fortis acquired ABN AMRO of the Netherlands.

9. Asda is UK’s second largest supermarket chain and owned by Wal-Mart(WMT). Asda competes against Tesco and other retailers.

10. Natwest, a short name for National Westminster Bank Plc is now part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (RBS).