8 Philippine firms in Forbes’ Best Over A Billion list

MANILA, Philippines — Eight Philippine companies made it to Forbes Asia’s inaugural Best Over A Billion list, a roster of 200 Asia-Pacific companies with revenues of more than $1 billion or more.

These companies, arranged according to their latest full-year sales revenue, are SM Investments Corp. ($7.9 billion), San Miguel Food and Beverage ($5.438 billion), JG Summit Holdings ($5.3 billion), Ayala Corp. ($5.2 billion), GT Capital Holdings ($3.8 billion), Cosco Capital ($3.2 billion), Jollibee Foods Corp. ($3 billion) and Megaworld Corp. ($1 billion).

Forbes said the new list complements the long-established Best Under A Billion list of the 200 best performing, small and mid-sized companies in the Asia-Pacific region with less than $1 billion in revenue.

“Together, the two lists now comprehensively cover all of Asia-Pacific’s listed companies, selecting the best 400 from the smallest to the biggest, using $1 billion in sales as a dividing line,” it added.

Furthermore, the inaugural list also highlights the connection between the companies and members of Forbes Asia’s rich lists.

“The Best Over A Billion list provides an incredible insight into which are Asia’s best-run big companies. Nearly two thirds of the companies on this list are controlled by or connected to families or individuals who have appeared on Forbes Asia’s rich lists,” Forbes Asia director Justin Doebele said.

It cited San Miguel Food and Beverage as an example. The company counts the Philippine billionaires Ramon Ang and Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. among its biggest shareholders and are CEO and chairman, respectively, Forbes said.

“The company’s shares have surged over 20 percent this year, outperforming the local stock market benchmark,” Forbes said of San Miguel Food & Beverage.

From a list of 3,200 companies in the Asia-Pacific region, candidates for the Best Over A Billion list are evaluated based on more than a dozen metrics including their average five-year sales, operating income growth, return on capital, and projected growth over the next one to two years.

“Those having the highest composite score earned a place in the final list of 200. The goal is to find the region’s best-run companies that are doing well on not just one metric but across many of them. The result is a list that represents the best of Asia-Pacific’s big companies,” Forbes said.

Among the biggest companies on the list by market value hail from the technology sector and the region’s largest markets.

These include internet behemoths Alibaba and Tencent, as well as semiconductor giants Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and SK Hynix.

Uniqlo apparel chain founded by Japanese billionaire Tadashi Yanai is also among the 10 largest companies on the list by market value. Industries that dominate the list include retail, real estate, banking, transportation as well as food and beverage manufacturing.

Another notable company on the list is Vietjet Aviation which became Vietnam’s largest carrier in just eight years. The carrier transported 23 million passengers in 2018, enjoying a 46 percent share of Vietnam’s booming air travel market.

The carrier was founded by Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, Southeast Asia’s wealthiest self-made woman with an estimated net worth of $2.3 billion.