BHEL, Airtel, HDFC among 10 Indian firms on Forbes' list

New York, Sep 4: Ten Indian companies led by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank are on the Forbes' list of 50 of the best of Asia-Pacific's biggest listed companies, out of a universe of 500.

Asian Fab 50 Companies' ranking is topped by Taiwanese computer maker Acer, while BHEL and Airtel are the top ranked Indian companies occupying the fifth and sixth spots on the list.

Though the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has a market value of USD 77.7 billion, making it the biggest Indian firm, it is ranked 39.

Forbes described its criteria for inclusion on the Fab 50 list as: "We look at long-term profitability, sales and earnings growth, stock price appreciation and projected earnings for every company in the region with revenues or market capitalisation of at least USD 5 billion."

Thus, from Indian companies, BHEL and Airtel are followed by private sector lender HDFC Bank (22), IT giant Infosys Technolgoies Ltd (25), diversified conglomerate ITC Ltd (27), engineering and infrastructure firm Larsen and Toubro (L&T) (30), auto maker Mahindra & Mahindra (34), steel major Tata Steel (44) and software and services company Wipro Technologies (46).

India with 10 companies comes second on the list after China which has the maximum representation of 13 firms. Hong Kong has another five, Taiwan six and Australia seven companies on the list.

"Indian companies once again had a strong showing, with 10 making our cut. Infosys and Wipro, perennial top performers, are back for the fourth year. RIL, BHEL, L&T are back for the third year," the US business magazine said in a report accompanying the list.

"Consumer-oriented companies such as Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra and ITC are growing with India's middle class," it added.

About BHEL, the magazine said: "With the Indian government's commitment to achieve 'power for all by 2012', the country's largest energy equipment provider is firing up plenty of juice. Still 68 percent state-held, it holds a commanding 60 percent to 65 percent market share of India's power capacity additions."

On telecom major Airtel, the report said: "As many as 10 million new subscribers sign up every month for wireless access in India. One in four sign up with Bharti Airtel, not only to make calls but also to access the Web, download cricket scores and send billions of text messages."

On Tata Steel, partly owned by the Tata group, the magazine said Ratan Tata transformed his steel company from a South Asian foundry into an enterprise spanning the rest of Asia, Europe and the US with USD 13 billion takeover of Anglo-Dutch Corus group last year.