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: The FE 500 list has been compiled from largely published balance sheets of companies, which closed their last financial year between April 1, 2006 and March 31, 2007. And for some companies June 2007 figures have been considered. It includes all private and public sector companies (excluding non-banking finance companies and banks) that are listed on the markets and whose balance sheets were available by end-December 2007.

In the tables that follow, any reference to 2007 (current) refers to the financial year 2006-07. Similarly for 2006 (previous). Where companies had financial years that were less than 12 months or more than 12, the results have been annualised to arrive at a comparable figure.

For the purposes of our study, the ranking has been done on the basis of net sales, which is sales or main income minus excise duty. Sales include service charges and lease income.

Assets relate to fixed assets (land, buildings, machinery, etc) plus capital work-in-progress, cash and bank balances, loans and other debtor balances, investments and other intangible assets, excluding accumulated losses and advance tax provisions.

Operating profit is arrived at gross profit plus interest.

Gross profit is arrived at profit before tax (PBT) plus depreciation. Deduct taxes (including deferred taxes) from the PBT figure and you get profit after tax (PAT). PAT minus dividends gives us retained profit.

Market capitalisation is the market value of a company’s outstanding shares based on closing market prices as on January 31, 2008.

Net worth is the paid-up capital (equity and preference) plus total reserves and surplus excluding accumulated losses.

Earnings per share (EPS) refer to PAT divided by the number of outstanding equity shares.

Debt includes all long-term loans, including debentures, plus installment credit. Thus the debt-equity ratio refers to debt divided by net worth. Return on sales is PAT as a percentage of net sales, while the return on assets is gross profit as a percentage of assets.

The return on net worth (RONW) represents PAT as a percentage of net worth.

OPM represents operating profit as a percentage of net sales.

Caveats and limitations

* While the overall sales rankings have been made on the basis of the available universe of private and public sector quoted companies, the other rankings (assets, net worth, gross profit, market capitalisation, composite, etc) are restricted to the FE 500.

* Every attempt has been made to make all figures comparable and compatible with our definitions. All the related data has been taken from the respective balance sheets only.

* Twenty-three companies changed their accounting period during 2006-07. They are: ACC, Ambuja Cements, Areva T&D (I), Balrampur Chini, Bosch Chassis Systems (I), Blue Dart Express, Clariant Chemicals (I), Deccan Aviation, Escorts, Federal-Mogul Goetze(I), Gammon(I), GTL, GHCL, Gujarat NRE Coke, Gillette, Hindustan Motors, JMC Projects (I), Madras Aluminium Co, Mangalam Cement, Samtel Color, Spicejet, SPIC, and Videocon Inds.

* Wherever accounting periods have been less or more than 12 months, sales, operating profit, gross profits, PBT, PAT, and retained profit figures have been annualised. The only exception from this general rule is net worth and assets.

* Some big companies could not be included in the study because balance sheets and profit and loss accounts were not available. These companies are: Ashima, Ind Swift Lab, Lanxess ABS, Modipon Narmada Chemateur, Rathi Ispat, Simbholi Sugar, Vallabh Steel, Wartsila, Facor Steel, Elgi Equipment, Mcleod Russel, Monsanto, Nitco Tiles, REI Agro, Teledata Informatic, Vishal Export, J B Chemicals, SRB Steel, Indo Rama Textiles, Syngenta, and Arvind Mills.

* Some companies changed their names during the year. These are, with the new names in brackets: Grindwell Norton (Saint Gobain), Mind Tree Consulting (Mind Tree Consultants), Madhya Pradesh Glychem (Anik Inds), Mahavir Spg (Vardhman Textiles), MICO (Bosch), Raipur Alloys &Steel (Sarda Energy &Min), Simplex Concrete (Simplex Infra), Kalyani Brakes (Bosch Chassis Sys (I)), Jai Balaji Sponge (Jaibala Ind), Maruti Udyog (Maruti Suzuki(I)), Pentium Infotech (Platinum Corporation), Videocon Communications (Trend Electronics) , Flex Inds (Uflex), and Toubro Infotech & Inds (Alchemist).

* Industry-wise groupings have been done on the basis of the standard industrial classification of all economic activities adopted by the Government of India. A company with more than one activity is classified within that industry from which it derives more than a half of its sales or main income.

* Mergers and acquisitions have also become major factors in corporate growth during 2006-07. Some companies amalgamated with others during the year. These are, with names in brackets: Indian Oil Corp (IBP) and Reliance Industries (IPCL).

* Some companies could not be included due to lower sales during 2006-07 but was in the list of FE-500 during 2005-06. These are Amtek India, Bharati Shipyard, Banswara Syntex, Bombay Dyeing, Dharani Sugars & Chemicals Drugs, Flex Inds, Kennametal Widia, Kirloskar Pneumatic, Loyal Textiles, Micro Inks, Manali Petrochem, Merck, Nagarjuna Agrichem, Nector Lifescience, Nahar Exports, Nocil, PCS Technology, Rama Newsprint, RCF, South India Corpn., Super Spg. Mills, Steelco Gujarat, Videocon Communication, and VST Inds.

* Market capitalisation figures are calculated on the basis of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) quotations and for some companies National Stock Exchange (NSE) quotations are considered. Some companies are delisted from the stock exchanges or not quoted during the last one year, so we have not considered those companies for our study.

* Companies which are delisted or not quoted for long are Bayer Cropscience (I), Cadbury (I), Carrier Aircon, ESI, Flextronics Software, Herdilia Chemicals, Liberty Oil, Modern Syntex, Mohan Meakings, OTIS Elevator (I), Philips Electronics (I), Sandvik Asia, and Syngenta Inds.

* Some companies changed their face value during the year. These are, with the new face value in brackets: Alembic (Rs 2), Ansal Properties (Rs 5), Blue Star (Rs 2), Crompton Greaves (Rs 2), Classic Diamonds (Rs 2), DLF (Rs 2), EIH (Rs 2), Elecon Engg. (Rs 2), Exide Inds (Rs 1), Finolex Cable (Rs 2), Godrej Consumer Products (Rs 1), Godrej Industries (Rs 1), Gokaldas Exports (Rs 5), Graphite (Rs 2),Hotel Leelaventure (Rs 2), HT Media (Rs 2), Indian Hotel (Rs 1), Jagran Prakashan (Rs 2), Jindal Steel (Rs 1), Jyoti Structure (Rs 2), KEI Inds (Rs 2), Lakshmi Overseas Inds (Rs 2), Maharashtra Seamless (Rs 5), Marico (Rs 1), Munjal Showa (Rs 2),Nahar Spinning (Rs 5), Nicco Corpn(Rs 2), Nirma (Rs 5), Pantaloon Retail (Rs 2), Rajesh Exports (Rs 1), Siemens (Rs 2), Simplex Infra (Rs 2), Sterlite Inds (Rs 2), Suzlon Energy (Rs 2), Sujana Metal Products (Rs 5), Tech Mahindra (Rs 10), Transport Corpn( Rs 2), and Tube Investments (Rs 2).

* Seventy- two companies have entered the list of FE500 for the first time in 2006-07.Mention may be made of Alstom, Anik Inds, Ansal Properties, Astrazen Pharma, Atlanta, Auto Stamping, Balasore, Bosch Chasis System, Eskay K’nit, Essel Propac, Ester Inds, Everest Kant, Fedders Lloyd, Firstsource, Flat Product, GE Shipping, Gayatri Projects, Goa Carbon, Godawari Power, Great Offshore, Gujarat Siddhi Cement, Idea Cellur, Indian Acrylic, Indoco Remedies, ISMT, Jay Bharat Maruti, Jindal Photo, JMC Projects, KM Sugar, KEI Inds, Kesar Ent, Khaitan Electric, Kirloskar Electric, KPIT Cummins, Lanco Infra, LML, Modern Steel, Nectar Life, Omaxe, Parsvnath, Powergrid, Praj Inds, Rajshree Sugar, Redington, RPG Trans, Sanghi Inds, Saeda Enmin, Sasken Communications, Satnam Overseas, Saurashtra Cement, Sical Log, SIL Investment, Simplex Concrete, Sobha Developers, SPIC, Spanco Tele, Spicejet, Sterlite Tec, Strides Arco, Sun TV, Tech Mahindra, Thhiru Arooran Sugar, Tide Water Oil, Toubro Infotech, Trend Elec, Tulip IT, TVS Schrichakra, Uflex, Voltamp, Wyeth, Zenith Birla, and Zensar Tech.