SMC lone RP firm in Asian growth index

FinanceAsia, the region’s most highly regarded financial magazine, has launched an index of Asia’s top 100 companies with San Miguel Corp. (SMC) as the only Philippine company included on the list.

The companies in the FinanceAsia 100 index were constituted based on profitability through a three-year business cycle. "This is a barometer of how well Asia is doing and is an index of Asia’s top 100 companies based on those that have accumulated the most aggregate US dollar profit over the past three years," the magazine said.

FinanceAsia set the index at 1,000 on Jan. 2, 2002 and will update it weekly based on the previous week’s closing prices of the companies in the list. The companies listed in the index will be reconstituted September of each year on the same concept of three-year aggregate profits.

Over time, the magazine said that the index will give a good idea of the Asian growth predicted in the cover story of its Sept. 15-Oct. 14, 2002 sixth anniversary issue. As part of the story, FinanceAsia conducted a straw poll of fund managers and found that 91 percent thought Asia would outperform in the next few years.

Meanwhile, the widely circulated US magazine BusinesWeek in its July issue, also listed SMC on its top 200 emerging-marketing companies for 2002. The company advanced to No. 118 from its No. 135 ranking the previous year, with the magazine placing SMC’s market value at nearly $2.75 billion, up 15 percent from last year.

SMC emerged as the top Philippine company in the list that included two other local firms: Bank of PI, No. 161 with $2.12- billion market value and Globe Telecom, No. 169 with $1.98 billion.