11 M'sian companies made it to Forbes Asia's 'Best under a billion' list - Sangeetha Amarthalingam

Author: Tan KW   |   Publish date: Fri, 26 Jun 2015, 09:12 AM 

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By Sangeetha Amarthalingam / theedgemarkets.com   | June 25, 2015 : 12:41 PM MYT  

KUALA LUMPUR (June 25): Eleven Malaysian companies, a drop of three from last year, made it into Forbes Asia’s 'Best under a billion' 2015 list which honours leading public companies in the Asia Pacific region with annual revenue between US$5 million and US$1 billion.

In a statement, Forbes Asia, a magazine printed by Forbes Media LLC, revealed that Malaysia was on par with India which also had 11 of its companies featured on the list, placing them at fourth and fifth spots.

According to last year's list, Malaysia made a showing with 14 companies involved in the construction and properties sector.

They included KSL Holdings Bhd ( Financial Dashboard), Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd ( Financial Dashboard), Inari Amerton Bhd ( Financial Dashboard), Tune Ins Holdings Bhd ( Financial Dashboard), George Kent (M) Bhd ( Financial Dashboard), Matrix Concepts Holdings Bhd ( Financial Dashboard), Willowglen MSC Bhd ( Financial Dashboard) and Prestariang Bhd ( Financial Dashboard).

The annual list showed that companies from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan dominated it again whilst accounting for 60% of the top 200 publicly traded companies in the region.

Eighty-four companies from China and Hong Kong are at top spot, while 36 companies represented Taiwan. These companies averaged 66% growth in sales and 63% growth in earnings per share last year, said Forbes Asia.

Forbes Asia stated that these companies are screened on sales growth and earnings growth in the past 12 months and over three years, and for the strongest five-year return on equity.

“Of the 200, 123 are new to the list, underscoring the dynamism of the region’s small and medium-sized sector. A total of 84 companies on this year’s list are from China and Hong Kong, down one from last year.

“Pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies from China featured strongly on the list, as was the case last year.

“The second largest group of companies on the list comes from Taiwan. This year, five more made it to the list, bringing the total number from Taiwan to 36,” it added.

South Korea was third on the list with 17 companies, up from 12 last year while Japan dropped out of the top five countries with only eight companies compared to 15 last year, Forbes Asia said.

“Singapore is represented by six companies, up from three last year. Thailand is also represented by six companies, down from nine last year,” said Forbes Asia, adding that Sri Lanka had a rare entry with a hydropower electricity generator.

Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam had three companies each within the list along with Pakistan’s two.

http://www.theedgemarkets.com/en/article/11-msian-companies-made-it-forbes-asias-best-under-billion-list