Forbes Releases 200 Best Under a Billion List
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 01 September 2011, 01:25 IST
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Forbes Releases 200 Best Under a Billion List
Bangalore: Forbes has released a list of major companies in the Asia-Pacific region that towered over other companies in the economic sphere, in the recently conducted "200 best under a billion" survey. While conducting the survey, Forbes had looked for companies in the Asia- Pacific that reflected both sales and earnings growth during the world economic turmoil. The companies across the whole region were screened for earnings growth, sales growth and return on equity in the past 12 months, and over 3 years. The survey required the companies to have annual revenue between $5 million and $1 billion, to qualify to make it to the list. Apart from this, it should also have traded publicly for at least a year The Chinese and Hong Kong companies have dominated the list. Of the 65 companies from these two countries, 21 companies return from last year. An average sale among them grew 43 percent over the latest three-year period; earnings per share grew 50 percent over the same time. This happened despite the fact that they average an 11 percent debt-to-equity ratio, with 24 of them being debt free. The result also highlighted that three Chinese companies outgrew the list from last year. They are branded sports- wear maker Anta Sports Products, web-service provider Baidu and knitwear manufacturer Shenzhou International Holdings. Further, it showed 35 Indian companies who are ranked among the top 200 Asia-Pacific corporations. The number of Indian companies is second only to the 65 firms from both China and Hong Kong. Among the Indian companies that made the grade are SRF, which manufactures chemical-based industrial intermediates; Polyplex, which makes polyester film; and Glodyne Technoserve, an IT services company. However, India's largest storage-battery producer, Exide Industries -- which was present in the list last year has grown too big to be included in the 200-company list for 2011, having breached the $1 billion sales mark in the past 12 months. Six Singaporean companies have also managed to do well during the economic turmoil and have made it to Forbes' "Best Under a Billion" list of 200 companies. They are Investment funds manager ARA Asset Management, warehousing and logistics services company CWT, marine management and engineering firm Ezion Holdings, environmental protection services provider leader Environmental Technologies, service vessel supplier Miclyn Express Offshore and oil and gas engineering firm PEC. The figure is, however, lesser than the 8 Singaporean companies that had made it to the list last year.

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