8 Philippine companies make it to Forbes Asia’s best firms of 2019

MANILA, Philippines – As Forbes Asia released its “200 Best Over A Billion 2019”, eight companies from the Philippines made it to the list. To be part of this list, the company should have a revenue of $1 billion or more.

The Makati central business district (CBD)
The Makati central business district (CBD) | Photo Credit: BusinessWorld

According to Forbes, the new list is meant to complement the “long-established Best Under A Billion list of the 200 best-performing, small and midsized companies in the Asia-Pacific region with less than $1 billion in revenue.” Forbes explained that $1 billion in sales was used as a dividing line between the two lists.
What’s notable is that Jollibee Foods ‘graduated’ from being part of the old list over top-performing businesses with under a billion dollars to become part of the new list of companies earning over $1 billion!

Selection Process

Using the companies’ revenue reports in their latest financial year, a pool of 3,200 companies in the Asia Pacific region was considered for the final list by Forbes. The list was trimmed down to exclude unprofitable companies, those with declining sales for the past 5 years, companies with long-term debt equal to or greater than 50% of their capital, and those with legal or governance issues.

Then, using over a dozen metrics, including operating income growth, return on capital, average five-year sales, and projected growth over the next one to two years, the companies were once again ranked.

Forbes then released the top 200 based on their composite scores. Not surprisingly, many of these companies belong to or are connected to the individuals or families who have appeared on Forbes Asia's rich lists.

As expected, companies from China, South Korea, and Japan were among those in the top of the list, yet contenders from smaller markets have also joined the list. There were a handful of companies from Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines that made it to the list of Asia’s best firms of 2019.

Companies from the Philippines earning over $1 billion in revenue and making it to Forbes’ list are the following:

Name Sales (US $mil) Net Income (US $mil) Market Value (US $mil)
Ayala Corp 5,220 604 11,171
Cosco Capital 3,198 105 942
GT Capital Holdings 3,794 254 3,743
JG Summit Holdings 5,327 364 9,037
Jollibee Foods 3,061 158 4,829
Megaworld 1,022 289 3,765
San Miguel Food and Beverage 5,438 346 11,861
SM Investments 7,993 704 22,796

Of the eight companies, SM Investments by the Sy family has the highest market value of all Filipino companies on the list at $22.8 billion. It has a net income of $704 million and net sales of $7.99 billion.

Cosco Capital has the lowest market value of the eight but actually has more net sales than Jollibee Foods and Megaworld.

— Joy Adalia, The Summit Express


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