KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 24): Batu Kawan Bhd has for the third year in a row, made it as the only Malaysian company on the 13th annual Forbes Asia’s Fabulous 50 list.

Batu Kawan, which first made its debut on the list in 2015, has a market value of US$1.8 billion and an annual revenue of US$4.1 billion.

The Forbes Asia’s Fabulous 50 list gathers the best publicly-traded big companies across the Asia-Pacific region.

China had the most number of companies, with 29 on the list this year, seven more than last year. 

Among them were Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, with a market capitalisations of US$399 billion and US$387 billion respectively. These two companies are also ranked first and second in terms of net profits.

India had the second most number of companies featured, with eight listed this year.

The “Fab 50” companies are selected from a pool of 1,694 public companies in the region, with at least US$1.8 billion in annual revenue. Companies that are losing money or whose revenue is less than it was five years ago, do not qualify. The list also excludes companies that have a high debt ratio, are more than 50% state-owned or more than 50%-owned by listed parents. Companies are then analysed using a battery of more than a dozen financial measures.