China and India dominate Asia’s top 50 companies.

Chinese and Indian companies are the powerhouses of Asia’s economy. According to a list published by the US business magazine Forbes on Thursday (16.09.2010) Chinese and Indian enterprises claim 32 slots in the list of the top 50 businesses. Both of the Asian big players accounted for 16 of the firms on the annual Forbes’ "Asia Fab 50" list.

The annual compilation of the biggest public companies include corporations in the Asia-Pacific region. Ranking criteria included recent financial returns, share price movement and future prospects. The previous five years' revenue, operating earnings and return on capital were also taken into account as were recent financial results and share price movements.

Taiwan’s Asus number one

When the first ranking of Asia’s top 50 business companies was compiled in 2005, only five Chinese and three Indian enterprises made the cut. Japan was ranked number one with 13 companies five years ago. This year Japan is only represented by two companies. The list released by Forbes was compiled from a shortlist of 936 Asian companies with revenues or market capitalization of at least 3 billion US dollars.

This year’s first spot on the leader board goes to Taiwan’s computer hardware manufacturer Asus. China’s entries include electronic giant Lenovo, which bought up US IBM’s computer branch in 2005, China Mengniu Dairy, one of the top 20 dairy companies in the world and SAIC Motor. India's companies included JSW Steel and Axis Bank, India’s third largest non-state-owned Bank.

Technology companies dominate

Only two companies have made the "Asia’s Fab 50" list every year since it started - Hong Kong's Li and Fung international trading company and Infosys Technologies. Technology companies had the biggest single share of positions on the list with 10 representatives.

However, there were some high-profile casualties from the 2009 listing, including Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, parent company of Foxconn Technology Group - supplier of Apple, which dropped off the list for the first time after a spate of suicides at its southern China factories this year. For the first time, there were no oil and gas or telecommunications companies on the list.

Author: Chi Viet Giang
Editor: Grahame Lucas