MANILA, Philippines – Eight Philippine companies made it to Forbes Asia’s inaugural Best Over A Billion list, which includes 200 top performing listed firms across the Asia-Pacific region with revenues of $1 billion or more.

Making it to the 2019 list are:

• Ayala Corporation
• Cosco Capital
• GT Capital Holdings
• JG Summit Holdings
• Jollibee Foods Corporation
• Megaworld Corporation
• San Miguel Food and Beverage
• SM Investments Corporation

The companies were picked from a universe of 3,200 listed firms across the region.

They were evaluated based on various metrics, including their average 5-year sales, operating income growth, return on capital, and projected growth over the next 1 or 2 years.

“The goal is to find the region’s best-run companies that are doing well on not just one metric but across many of them. The result is a list that represents the best of Asia-Pacific’s big companies,” Forbes Asia said.

The Sy family’s SM Investments has the highest market value of all Filipino companies on the list at $22.8 billion. The retail giant’s net sales clocked in at $7.99 billion, while its net income is $704 million.

The list also pointed out the connection between the companies and those on Forbes Asia’s rich lists.

“Nearly two-thirds of the companies on this list are controlled by or connected to families or individuals who have appeared on Forbes Asia’s rich lists,” said Justin Doebele, editor of Forbes Asia.

Forbes Asia highlighted this connection through Ramon Ang and San Miguel Food and Beverage. The company has a market value of $11.9 billion, with Ang and Eduardo Cojuangco Jr as its biggest shareholders. (READ: How Ramon Ang became Philippines’ 10th richest man in 2017)

The company’s shares have surged over 20% in 2019, outperforming the Philippine Stock Exchange index.

The 65-year-old Ang, featured in the magazine’s September cover story, is said to be busy “orchestrating a massive expansion” of the 129-year-old conglomerate.

“Within 5 years, he aims to more than double the group’s production capacity, which in 2017 stood at 19 million hectoliters of beer and 2.6 million tons of feed,” Forbes Asia said.

Overall, technology companies dominated the list. Chinese companies Alibaba ($409.9 billion) and Tencent ($412.6 billion), as well as semiconductor maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing ($204.3 billion), topped the list by market value.

Fast Retailing, the operator of popular clothing store Uniqlo, is among the 10 largest companies on the list with a market value of $63.2 billion.

Industries that dominate the list include retail, real estate, banking, transportation, as well as food and beverage manufacturing. – Rappler.com