Asian 1000 companies stack up on the pecking order by sales, net profit,assets, equity and employees in 2000. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), a publicsector oil refinery, has maintained its rank at 44 during both years. Itssales of $18,848 million were up 31.1 per cent. Mitsui & Co, a Japanesegeneral trading corporate, perched atop with sales of the $115,887.2 milliondespite a drop of 5.6 per cent. At the 1,000th position is again a Japanesemachinery trading company Narasaki Sangyo, with sales of $1,099.9 million,though less than 1 per cent of that of number one, Mitsui. In between lies aswathe of companies from different Asian countries.

Japanese companies dominate the listing. Restructuring drove most of themand quite a few Asian ones to trim cost and tank up on profit. Recovery,underway for quite sometime now, also helped. Other Asian companies aretrying hard to increase profits through efficiency, profitability andinnovation.

India's 20 companies with sales of $ 76.6 billion account for 1.4 per centof total sales of 1,000 companies. Net profit of $4.6 billion accounted for5.1 per cent, assets of $74.6 billion for 1.2 per cent, equity of $33.7billion for 1.8 per cent. They employed 3.88 lakh employees accounting for2.7 per cent of total employees.

Until liberal reforms, there were shackles on the growth of companies forfear of monopoly and economic concentration. Their performance in comparisonto that of Asian companies shows that they have neither dazzled in anycategory nor are they fearsome behemoths as they are often made out to be athome. They look like cubs in the presence of Japanese jaguars and Asiantigers.

The Asiaweek 1000 companies in 2000 notched up sales of the $5,409.2billion, net profit $90.7 billion, assets $6,268.4 billion, equity $1,851.5billion and employed 14.6 million persons. Japan Inc dominates the show with696 companies with $4,180.8 billion accounting for 77.3 per cent of totalsales, $25.1 billion net profit accounting for 27.6 per cent, $4,492.6billion assets accounting for 71.7 per cent and $1,147.9 billion equityaccounting for 62 per cent of total. They employed 8.1 million personsaccounting for 55.5 per cent of the total employees. China's 25 companies'sshare of total sales was 3.5 per cent, of net profit 9 per cent, of assets6.6 per cent and of equity 8.9 per cent. Their share of employees was 21.9per cent.

Other countries seem to have fared well in different categories. Hong Kong's18 companies had a 23.5 per cent share of net profit and South Korea's 59companies 6.7 per cent of total sales but were roiled in loss. Australia's70 companies have grabbed a 14 per cent share of net profit. Taiwan's 37companies also have a 8.6 per cent share of net profit. Companies fromMalaysia, Thai, Philippines, Indonesian, New Zealand and Pakistani had to becontent with less than a per cent share of each of these categories. The top18 perches among 1,000 companies have gone to Japanese companies, mostly ingeneral trading, automobile, telecommunications, electronics, machinery,appliances, electronics, media, computers and power generation. Among thetop 20 Indian companies, public sector oil refineries and private sectorcompanies in power generation, oil and gas, engineering, telecommunications,cars, chemicals, steel, textiles and chemicals found a place in the list.

Reliance Industries, Hindustan Lever, Tata Engineering, Tata Steel, ITC andLarsen & Toubro were the only private sector companies.

The top performers in different categories throw up interesting insightsinto corporate functioning. The Hong Kong-based Li Ka-shing's retail andtelecom corporate, Hutchison Whampoa, topped with $15 billion in profit,nearly all of which came from the sale of its 49 per cent equity in Orange,the UK based cellular company. It also turned up the best profit margin onsales and assets as well as the highest growth in profit. South Korea'sDaewoo Corpn that bled from a stupendous loss of $15 billion presaged itseventual bankruptcy. Nissan and Itochu, the Japanese corporates failed tomake the best of their largest assets base. NIT Dotcomo, again a Japanesecompany topped in market capitalisation at $280 billion. Productwiseperformance also shows the dominance of Japanese companies. Japanesecompanies topped in sales in appliances, beverages, food and tobacco,clothing and textiles, construction, electric power, heavy industry andengineering, industrial and farm equipment,information equipment, media andcommunications, materials, metals, motor vehicles, oil and natural gasretailing and transportation. BHP, an Australian resources (mining & metals)and China Petroleum and Chem in chemicals were the only two exceptions tothe Japanese dominance in industries in 2000.

Mitsui, a Japanese general trading company and a top notcher despite a fallin sales did manage a fifth rise in profits. So did Toyota, a car maker, byslashing costs and streamlining operations. The reason: restructuring.Mostoil companies particularly from Indonesia and Malaysia made it to the liston the back of a strong recent surge in crude oil prices. The last but themost significant factor that influenced the fortunes of many Asian companiesamong the Asiaweek 1000 is the ongoing recovery in many Asian countries. Therecovery with restructuring may shape the next year's pecking order.

SR Kasbekar