Nine Malaysian firms listed in Forbes Asia’s top 200 performing small, medium-sized companies in region
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — Nine Malaysian-based firms have been listed in this year’s Forbes Asia’s Best Under A Billion, which recognises 200 top-performing small- and mid-sized listed companies in the Asia-Pacific region.
They were: Frontken, Greatech Technology, Harbour-Link Group, Kim Loong Resources, QES Group, Scicom, Thong Guan Industries, Uchi Technologies, and ViTrox.
“This year’s Best Under A Billion list highlights some of the Asia-Pacific region’s best managed small and mid-sized listed companies, including how they are using AI and digital technologies to improve their competitive edge,” Forbes Asia editor Justin Doebele said in an accompanying statement.
The list spotlights 200 leading public companies in the Asia-Pacific region with annual sales above US$10 million and below US$1 billion, the American business magazine franchise reported.
From about 20,000 listed companies, candidates were selected, but not ranked, based on a composite score that incorporated their overall track record in several measures.
The measures include debt, sales and earnings-per-share growth over both the most recent fiscal one-and three-year periods, and the strongest one-and five-year average returns on equity.
Out of the nine companies, Kim Loong Resources Bhd recorded the highest revenue with US$433 million. The company, which cultivates and processes palm oil, has a market value of US$348 million.
This was followed by Thong Guan Industries Bhd, which manufactures plastic packaging for food and beverage, industrial, waste, consumer, hygiene and medical businesses. It recorded US$318 million in revenue, and is currently valued at US$177 million.
Meanwhile, Harbour-Link Group Bhd came in third place for the highest revenue among the other nine with US$214 million. The company, which provides logistics, shipping and marine services, engineering and hauling services, is currently valued at US$94 million.
However, in terms of market value, ViTrox Technologies Sdn Bhd, a company that develops and produces three-dimensional and line-scan vision systems for semiconductor integrated circuit inspection, topped the Malaysian companies with US$1.45 billion.
Additionally, Greatech Technology Bhd, which provides automation equipment for industries such as solar photovoltaic, automotive, medical and battery, is valued at US$1.22 billion.
Both companies were followed by Frontken Corporation Bhd which has a market value of US$785 million. Frontken provides equipment-support services to the semiconductor, oil and gas and marine industries, among others, including maintenance and repair.
“The Petaling Jaya, Malaysia-based company provides precision cleaning for semiconductors as well as engineering services to the oil-and-gas and marine industries. Revenue grew 15 per cent in 2022 to a record US$118 million, with the semiconductor business contributing over three-quarters of total sales,” the report said.
However, Malaysian firms are far behind the top earners in the country’s closest neighbours in South-east Asia such as Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.
Thai company, Supalai recorded a revenue of US$983 million, and is currently valued at US$1.12 billion, while Harum Energy Indonesia recorded a revenue of US$904 million and has a market value of US$1.35 billion.
Forbes said the list uses full-year annual results as of July 22 this year and excluded companies with serious governance issues, questionable accounting, environmental concerns, management issues or legal troubles, while state-controlled and subsidiaries of larger companies were also excluded.
