KUALA LUMPUR: Eleven Malaysian companies made it into Forbes Asia’s “Best Under A Billion” 2015 list — which honours 200 leading public companies in the Asia-Pacific region with annual revenue of between US$5 million (RM18.8 million) and US$1 billion — down from 14 companies last year.

The 11 companies this year are: Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd, Elsoft Research Bhd, GD Express Carrier Bhd, Inari Amertron Bhd, MyEG Services Bhd, OSK Property Holdings Bhd, Scientex Bhd, Seal Inc Bhd, Tambun Indah Land Bhd, UEM Edgenta Bhd and Vitrox Corp Bhd.

In a statement, Forbes Asia, a magazine printed by Forbes Media LLC, said Malaysia is on par with India which also has 11 companies featured on the list.

The companies on the list must also have positive net income and have been publicly traded for at least a year, according to Forbes Asia.

“From a universe of 17,000 companies, the candidates are screened on sales growth and earnings growth in the past 12 months and over three years, and for the strongest five-year return on equity,” it said.

The annual list was dominated by companies from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan; the three collectively accounted for 60% of the top 200 publicly traded companies in the region.

“Of the 200, some 123 are new to the list, underscoring the dynamism of the region’s small and medium-sized sector. A total of 84 companies on this year’s list are from China and Hong Kong, down one from last year.

“Pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies from China featured strongly on the list, as was the case last year.

“The second largest group of companies on the list comes from Taiwan. This year, five more made it to the list, bringing the total number from Taiwan to 36,” it said.

South Korea was third on the list with 17 companies, up from 12 last year, Australia has nine, while Japan dropped out of the top five countries with only eight companies compared to 15 last year, said Forbes Asia.

“Singapore is represented by six companies, up from three last year. Thailand is also represented by six companies, down from nine last year,” said Forbes Asia, adding that Sri Lanka has a rare entry with a hydropower electricity generator.

Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam have three companies each on the list, while Pakistan has two.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 26, 2015.