Indian companies top Euromoney Asia poll

The poll, Euromoney’s seventh annual exercise for identifying the best managed Asian companies, also lists Infosys as the top Indian company, followed by ICICI Bank in second spot and Wipro and HDFC Bank tied at number three among Indian firms. They are followed by HDFC, Ranbaxy, State Bank of India, Bajaj Auto, Reliance Industries and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories.

The Euromoney poll was based on a survey of market analysts at major banks and research institutes in Asia. A questionnaire was sent out to these analysts in which they were asked to nominate the top three companies in each country and sector they covered. The rankings were based on market strength, profitability, growth potential and quality of earnings. Points were awarded on a scale of 4:3:2. Euromoney received nominations for over 500 companies for all categories across Asia.

In the banking/finance category, ICICI Bank tops among all Asian entities, followed by Thai Farmers Bank of Thailand, HDFC Bank of India and HSBC Hong Kong tied at second place. Housing Development Finance Corporation is at fifth place while SBI is at seventh, tied with Union Bank of the Philippines and Public Bank of Malaysia.

Among other sectors, Bajaj Auto emerges second to China’s Denway Motors in the auto and auto parts category.

In the IT and software category, the top two slots go to Indian companies Infosys and Wipro. Reliance Industries tops the petrochemicals sector ranking, ahead of China’s Sinopec. India also dominates the pharma sector, with Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy’s Labs bagging the top two slots respectively.

In what’s good news for Indian shareholders as well, three Indian companies figure in the top bracket in the category “Best treatment of minority shareholders.” Infosys tops this category, and is followed by HDFC Bank and HDFC both tied at fourth place. Significantly, three Indian companies also figure in the ‘most transparent financial accounts’ category. These are Infosys, which tops the category, followed by HDFC Bank and HDFC at fifth and sixth place respectively.

The fact that Indian firms are among the most Web-savvy in Asia is also underscored in the Euromoney poll. Infosys tops the best website category, followed by ICICI Bank at number two.

Wipro finishes at fourth place. Euromoney says Infosys has seen volume growth because the difficult business environment for companies worldwide has led to a rise in outsourcing of IT services. It says the management at Infosys is viewed as highly professional and quotes an analyst as saying its disclosure standards have emerged as the benchmark for other Indian companies.

Referring to the new NPA law in India, Euromoney says banks like ICICI Bank are now better positioned to improve their asset quality.