Thirty-five Indian companies are ranked among the top 200 Asia-Pacific corporations in Forbes Asia’s ‘Best Under a Billion’ list for this year.
The number of Indian companies was second only to the 65 firms from both China and Hong Kong that found a place in the list.
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, Forbes Asia said today.
However, India’s largest storage-battery producer, Exide Industries — which was present in the list last year — grew too big to be included in the 200-company list for 2011, having breached the $1-billion sales mark in the past 12 months.
The Asia-Pacific list ranks public companies in the Asia-Pacific region with annual revenues between $5 million and $ 1 billion. The companies were also evaluated in terms of return on equity, said Forbes Asia.
Mr Tim Ferguson, the Editor of Forbes Asia, said: “Essentially, these are our picks of the companies that have best managed through the economic volatility that began in 2008. Most navigated the global credit crunch with little to no debt on their balance sheets. On average, the companies on the list have a 13 per cent debt-to-equity ratio and 67 of these companies carry no debt at all.”
Pakistan has two companies on the list, namely Millat Tractors, which builds agricultural tractors, and software company Netsol Technologies.
Sri Lanka has four companies on the list — Asian Alliance Insurance, Ceylon Investment, Renuka Holdings and chicken processing company Bairaha Farm.