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India leads Asia in Forbes' list of top small firms

BS Corporate Bureau in New Delhi

Thirteen Indian companies have made it to the Forbes Global list of the 200 Best Small Companies in the World, as against ten companies in the previous list released a year ago.

India has more companies in the list than any other Asian nation, even though Forbes Global has raised the bar for inclusion in the list from $500 million a year ago to $1 billion now.

In last year's list, China with 15 companies was ahead of India. In the latest list, China has only four entries.

The Indian companies included in the list are Infosys Technologies, Mastek, Polaris Software, Rolta India, Satyam Computer and Visualsoft from the infotech sector, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank from the financial services sector, Zee Telefilms, Asian paints, Britannia Industries, Indo Gulf and Dr Reddy's Laboratories.

There has also been a churning among the Indian companies in the list over the past one year: while Global Telesystems, NIIT, Cipla and Sun Pharmaceuticals do not find a mention in the current list, the new entrants to the list include Mastek, Polaris Software, Visualsoft, ICICI Bank, Asian paints, Indo Gulf and Britannia Industries.

To put together the list, Forbes Global began with a universe of 20,000 publicly quoted companies with revenues of less than $1 billion.

In order to arrive at the final 200, the companies were scrutinised on the basis of their profitability, earnings and sales growth.

"Forbes Global also drew upon the expertise and insights of our network of sources - fund managers, analysts and entrepreneurs - to spot companies with brief operating histories but a promising future," a statement issued by Forbes Global said.

Interestingly, Infosys' market capitalisation at $4.67 billion is the highest amongst all the 97 Asian companies in the list, while Britannia Industries' return on equity of 66.6 per cent is also the highest notched by any Asian company on the list.

The Forbes Global list also reaffirms India's position as the leading software provider in Asia.

While India has six software companies in the list, no software company from any other Asian country is there in the list.

After India, Japan has 12 companies in the list, followed by Hong Kong with 12 companies, Singapore (10 companies), Thailand (nine), Taiwan (nine), Australia (seven), Indonesia (seven), South Korea (six) and China (four).

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