22 Indian cos find place in Forbes' Best under a Billion list

NEW YORK: As many has 22 Indian companies, including Educomp Solutions, Jain Irrigation and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, have been named in the latest '200 Best under a Billion' list for the Asia-Pacific region by US magazine Forbes.

India, with 22 entries, is fourth in terms of the number of the companies included in the list, which is led by Greater China outperforming the others in the Asia-Pacific region with 88 entries followed by Taiwan and Japan with 24 and 23 firms, respectively.

The annual 'Best Under a Billion' list picks the best 200 small and medium sized companies from 24,155 listed firms in the Asia-Pacific region.

Those with less than USD 1 billion in sales are vested for consistent growth of sales and profits over three years.

Other Indian firms on the list include, Blue Dart Express, Blue Star, Brigade Enterprises, Geodesic Information Systems, MIC Electronics, Nucleus Software Exports, Opto Circuits, Praj Industries and Unity Infrastructure.

About Educomp the magazine stated that, the company whose main business is developing and licensing digital lessons, has had a good run with its revenue up from USD 12.5 million in 2006 to USD 71 million for fiscal 2008, while profits jumped from USD 3 million to USD 18 million.

The company led by Shantanu Prakash is also cashing in on the education drive in the country by bringing computers to the classrooms.

Further, Thermax, Omnitech Infosolutions, Techno Electric & Engineering, Divi's Labs, Cords Cable Industries, Tulip Telecom and Ederx Services also find a place on the list.

"More than a quarter of last year's companies returned this year with consumer technology, commercial real estate, clean energy producers and business services sectors leading the way," Forbes Asia said in a release.

All the firms on the 2008 Best Under a Billion list increased their sales and profits despite the major indices in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Australia each falling by over 20 per cent in the past one year.

Education services from South Korea's mega study, Singapore's Raffles Education and India' Educomp also benefited from greater consumer spending, it stated.

The list appears in the September 29 issue of Forbes Asia.