3 Philippine firms make Forbes Asia Fab 50

MANILA, Philippines – Three Philippine-listed companies made it to this year’s Forbes Asia Fabulous 50 List, a list of the region’s most publicly traded companies, led by online and mobile commerce company Alibaba Group this year.

The three Philippine companies that made it to this year’s honor roll are fastfood chain operator Jollibee Foods Corp., Puregold Price Club, the country’s second largest grocery chain, and Robinsons Retail, the Gokongwei group’s retailing arm.

The list is an annual honor roll of sorts, highlighting some of the brightest and biggest stars in the Asia-Pacific region.

As of August 2016, Jollibee has a market capitalization of $5.9 billion and annual sales of $2.21 billion, while Puregold Price Club has a market capitalization of $2.6 billion and sales of $2.13 billion.

The third company on the list, Robinsons Retail Holdings, has market capitalization of $2.5 billion and annual revenue of $2 billion.

According to Forbes, the Fab 50 companies are selected from a pool of 1,524 public companies in the region with at least $1.7 billion in annual revenue.

Aside from these factors, the companies are analyzed using a battery of more than a dozen financial measures, including debt level.

As such, the list excludes companies that have a debt ratio of more than 50 percent or where the government owns at least half of the shares.

“The result is the region’s best of the best,” Forbes said.

Topping the list is the Alibaba Group, which not only made its debut on this year’s list but also boasts the highest market value of any of the companies and outperforms on a range of other metrics.

“Leading the charge, Alibaba was not eligible for the list until this year when the company met the requirement of being publicly traded for at least a year. It debuts with an impressive market value of $242.5 billion and profit of $11.2 billion,” Forbes said.

There are a total of 21 new entrants to this year’s list, which is the 12th edition of the “Fab 50” list.

Forbes said the 272 companies that have appeared on the list at least once since 2005 reflect the changing nature of business in the Asia-Pacific region.

“Back in 2005, five wireless telecom companies were represented; this year, there were none. That inaugural list also saw 11 tech hardware companies, while only six made the cut this year. On the other hand, no property developers joined the roster in the first three years but they have been well represented since. For six years in a row, companies from China have been dominating the Fab 50 list, with a total of 22 companies,” Forbes said.