Alibaba founder and CEO Jack Ma speaks before investors during Alibaba's Investor Day in June this year. (Photo : Getty Images)
Forbes has released this year's Asia's Fabulous 50 List of the best publicly traded big companies in the region, with Alibaba Group making its debut at the top, for having the highest market value among thousands of other companies and surpassing them in a range of metrics.
An article published by Forbes.com said that there were 21 new entrants in this year's list, which is considered as an annual honor roll that recognizes the brightest stars in business in the Asia Pacific region.
The "Fab 50" list, which is in its 12th edition, show the changing business nature in the region where about 272 companies have appeared at least once on the list.
In its inaugural list in 2005, five wireless telecom companies were included but this year, not even one was on the list. The inaugural list also had 11 tech hardware companies but this year, only six made it to the list. In addition, property developers were not on the roster during the first three years, however, they have well represented since then.
The Fab 50 companies in the roster were chosen among the 1,524 public companies in the region that earn at least $1.7 billion in annual revenue. The list, however, excludes companies with a debt ratio of more than 50 percent or when the government has at least half of the shares in the company. Using various financial measures, the selected companies were evaluated.
According to the report, Chinese companies dominated the Fab 50 list for six years in a row, with a total of 22 companies. Alibaba, which led the Chinese companies, did not qualify in the list until this year when it met the requirement to be publicly traded for at least a year.
Based on the list, Alibaba made it to the top with an impressive market value of $242.5 billion and profit of $11.2 billion. Meanwhile, Tencent, which was last year's most valuable company, is now worth $233.2 billion, and second in the list.
Next to China, India has the second highest number of companies with eight, down from last year's 10 companies. Tech Mahindra is the best performer in the country with a market value of $7.2 billion.
The third country with the highest number of companies in the list is South Korea, with five companies this year. The companies include Naver, AmorePacific and LG Household & Health Care.
Vietnam Dairy Products, which is Vietnam's first entry and made it to the "Fab 50" list. It is the country's largest dairy company and fifth largest public company listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.
Three companies from the Philippines made it to the list, led by fast-food chain operator Jollibee Foods, Puregold Price Club, the second largest grocery chain in the country, and Robinsons Retail.
Meanwhile, Taiwan and Japan has two companies each while Thailand and Malaysia has one company each this year. Singapore has no entry on this year's list.
The complete list of the Fab 50 companies was published by Forbes on its website.
