SINGAPORE: This year's Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 list
separates the merely good companies from the truly great ones, producing a list of the best 50 big, publicly-traded companies in Asia-Pacific, among them Malaysia's DiGi.com

China again dominated the list with 23 entries, the same as a year ago, while India has the second-biggest group of firms with 11 entries, up from seven.

Some of the stellar performers this year are Chinese snack companies -- Tingyi Holding, the number one packaged food-producer on the mainland, and Want Want China Holdings, whose sales jumped 31 per cent.

Chinese blue-chip property developers also made a strong showing, with real estate giant China Vanke returning to the list and newcomers such as Poly Real Estate Group and Longfor Properties.

Indian technology companies fared well on the list.

Software giant HCL appears on the list for the third time in a row. The Americas and Europe supply the bulk of its revenues, which rose 17 per cent last year.

Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest information technology services and consulting firm, went on a hiring spree, adding 40,000 employees in the past year.

Indian drug maker Sun Pharmaceutical broke into the list for the first time.

Hong Kong's Noble Group once again showed its resilience. It has now made the list for seven straight years, the longest streak of any company since the start of the list honouring the region's top performers in 2005.

South Korea has the third-largest group of companies on the list, with four entries.

Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand each had two companies, while Japan, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore each had one company that made the cut this year.

Several big names did not make the list this year, such as Australia's Wesfarmers, India's Mahindra and Mahindra and Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC.

The companies are selected from a pool of 1,295 companies that had at least US$3 billion in annual revenue or market capitalisation.

Forbes Asia looks at revenue, earnings, return on capital, share-price movements and outlook.

It excludes companies with too much debt or where the government owns at least half of the shares.

Local offshoots that are majority-owned by a multinational (Nestl' India, for example) were not considered.

Forbes Asia will hold the 'Fabulous 50' roundtable and award dinner in Macau on Dec 4, 2012.

The gathering will bring together the chairmen, chief executive officers and senior executives of these award-winning companies to exchange ideas and insights in an economic roundtable, followed by a gala dinner and award ceremony to mark their success. -- BERNAMA