NZX on Forbes best under a billion list

Forbes Magazine has picked a list of 200 "best under a billion" top-performing companies in Asia - those worth under US$1 billion - including one New Zealand company and 13 Australian companies.

Indonesia and Vietnam were the only other countries to have only one company listed.

The single company on this side of the Tasman is the NZX, New Zealand's listed stock exchange, which will next month launch a diversification into derivatives, starting with cash-settled contracts on the price of whole milkpowder traded internationally by Fonterra.

The NZX was listed by Forbes as having sales of US$31 million ($43 million), net income of US$28 million and a market value of US$121 million.

Australia - which had 18 companies named by Forbes last year - this time had a range of companies, including Queensland based coal miner New Hope, which turned over US$446 million in sales over the past three years.

Education services provider Navitas also made the list, touching US$469 million in sales, as did online travel booking service Wotif.com.

China made the biggest contribution to the list with 71 companies named, down from 78 the year before.

The annual Best Under a Billion list picks the top-performing 200 firms from almost 13,000 public listed Asia-Pacific companies with actively traded shares and sales between US$5 million and US$1 billion.

Selection of the final 200 was based on earnings growth, sales growth, and shareholders return on equity in the past 12 months and over three years.

- NZPA