Jollibee, GT Capital among Asia’s Fab 50 in Forbes list

MANILA, Philippines — Two Philippine companies made it to Forbes Asia’s list of 50 “fabulous” companies in Asia-Pacific.

The list is dubbed as an annual honor roll highlighting some of the brightest stars in the region.

George Ty-owned GT Capital Holdings and Jollibee Foods Corp. made it to this year’s list, dominated by Chinese companies.

The Ty family’s holding company boasts power, auto and real estate operations.

“Securing its first spot on the list, the company saw its shares rise by nearly 45 percent over the past year while its revenue was up by more than a third last year,” Forbes said.

“Strong auto sales at its subsidiary, Toyota Motor Philippines, was the main reason.”

The Tony Tan Caktiong-led Jollibee is on the list for the second time on the back of strong sales of about $2.04 billion in 2014.

“Fast-food behemoth makes the list for the second time,” Forbes said.

“Started as an ice cream shop in 1975, it now boasts more than 2,000 domestic locations and easily outnumbers McDonald’s and KFC. Counts 2,933 eateries worldwide, with plans to open 330 this year.”

Companies from China dominated this year’s list with 25 names on the list, up from 16 last year, and more than any other country for the fifth year in a row.

It also boasts the list’s most valuable company – Tencent, now worth $176.5 billion – and its biggest, Lenovo, which generated $46.3 billion in revenue last year, Forbessaid.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Forbes Asia’s Fab 50 list.

In the inaugural list 10 years ago, Japan produced the most companies, 12, and Australia was second, with 10.

This year, Japan has just one and Australia none, Forbessaid.

Ten companies from India are in the list this year, four from South Korea, two from Thailand, one from Taiwan, two from Malaysia, one from Indonesia and two from Singapore.

Most companies in the list came from heavy industry.

Over the decade, the Fab 50’s brightest star is India’s HDFC Bank, which did not debut until 2006.

“However, it has now made the list nine times, more than any other company,” Forbes said. “HDFC is the second-largest bank in India’s private sector, after ICICI Bank.”

Forbes compiled the Fab 50 companies from a pool of 1,116 publicly listed companies in the region with at least $3 billion in annual revenue or market capitalization.

Companies must be publicly traded for at least a year.

They are analyzed for a long series of performance measures, including revenue, profits, return on capital, share-price movements and outlook.

“The list excludes companies with too much debt or where the government owns at least half of the shares,” Forbes said.

“The result is the region’s best of the best.”