Malaysian telco Axiata is one of Forbes Asia's Fab 50

KUALA LUMPUR: Axiata Group Bhd is in the latest list of Forbes Asia's Fab 50, the only Malaysian company which made the cut this year when there were none the last time.
The telecommunications player was chosen to join the list from a total of 1,073 companies after its sales jumped by one third to US$5.1 billion (RM15.4 billion).

Having expanded to India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with over 25,000 employees worldwide, Axiata is valued at US$13.5 billion (RM40.8 billion).

The Fab 50 list takes into account companies with at least US$3 billion (RM9 billion) in revenue or market cap and five-year track records for revenue, operating earnings, return on capital, recent results, share price movements and outlook.

It excludes companies with too much debt or where the government owns half the shares.

This time around, as an indication of China's success story, nearly half or 23 of the best 50 companies are from China compared with 16 last year.

China's booming real estate, construction, car-making, appliance manufacturing and gold-mining industries had resulted in more companies from these sectors making their way into the honour roll.

Among them are newcomers, namely Qingdao Haier, the world's number one white goods brand, Zhongsheng Group Holdings, a chain of car dealerships, and China Merchants Bank, which boasts the highest annual net profit of the Fab 50 companies.

India saw seven of its best-performing companies chosen this year while eight South Korean companies made the cut.

Meanwhile, for the first time, due to the earthquake and tsunami in March, no Japanese company was in the super performers list.

Closer to home, Indonesia boasts two companies (Adaro Energy and Bank Central Asia), Singapore one company (Asia Pacific Breweries) and Thailand (CP All and PTT Chemical).

By Roziana Hamsawi, btimes.com.my