December 2008
Best Asian Companies 2008: Cash is king as Asia’s best companies put their money to work
With capital markets effectively closed, cash-rich Chinese firms are well placed to profit. They have tended to rely less on international markets for funding than some regional peers, and are able to develop strategies without the liquidity worries that plague rivals. Lawrence White reports.
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Best Asian Companies: Cash is king as Asia’s best companies put their money to work
Overall Results
Most convincing and coherent strategy by country
Most convincing and coherent strategy by sector
Best corporate governance by country |
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Best Asian Company Methodology 2008
Euromoney targeted equity analysts covering Asian companies contained as of 25th July 2008 in the following indices, the biggest exchange for domestic shares in the country: Shanghai Composite (People’s Republic of China); Hang Seng (Hong Kong); Seoul Composite (Korea); KLSE Composite (Malaysia); Philippine Stock Exchange (Philippines); Straits Times Index (Singapore); Taiwan SE Weighted Index (Taiwan); SET (Thailand); BSE 30 (India)
Euromoney’s Annual Asia Company ranking is based on a survey of market analysts at leading banks and research institutes in Asia. Polling took place from 2nd July until September 5th 2008. We received replies from 211 analysts who made a total of 4,384 nominations for 683 companies. Respondents were asked to nominate the top three companies in each of the countries or sectors they covered, bearing in mind market strength, profitability, growth potential and quality of management and earnings.
Points were awarded on the scale of 4:3:2 for nominations for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
A number of other countries and industry sectors were included in the survey, but did not receive enough responses to be published. If you would like more information about the poll, please contact tmoxon@euromoney.com |
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FOR COMPANIES IN Asia, now more than ever, it’s all about the money. With the capital markets all but seized up, the focus for Asia’s companies now is very much on cash. Those that have reserves of capital are working out how best to deploy it as they look for bargains in the region’s depressed markets; those that do not are desperately looking to maintain liquidity by cutting costs and squeezing every last drop of cash from their balance sheets.
This means more focus on cash management, as Tom Ducharme, head of global transaction banking, Asia Pacific, at Deutsche Bank explains. "Twelve months ago the business of cash management was perhaps taken for granted by some corporates," he says, "but this crisis has been very sobering for companies that assumed the capital markets would always be open and funding through them would always be cheap. When that source dries up, it makes sense to look at internal liquidity to reduce funding costs, and that’s where we can help."
More information on best companies in asia
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