Inside the Best Under a Billion issue

On the cover is Vivek Lohia, managing director of Jupiter Wagons

An economy can be judged by, among other things, the companies it breeds—their quality, quantity, diversity of operations, ability to survive local and global competition and to turn out world-class products and services. Size and scale matter, too, but they don’t come overnight; it’s the beginnings made by leveraging opportunities that a growing economy offers that will eventually propel many of these operations into the super league of extraordinary companies.

The Forbes Asia annual Best Under a Billion list of 200 small and mid-sized publicly-traded companies from the Asia-Pacific region with under $1 billion in sales is evidence of the vibrancy in many of these economies. As the editors of the list point out: “Strong domestic demand, supported by an uptick in infrastructure spending and global trade, powered the region’s overall growth in 2023.”

Unsurprisingly, China and India have the most companies on the list, at a tad over 30 from each country, with Japan, Taiwan, South Korea also being conspicuous by their presence.

The sheer diversity of sectors represented is an indicator of the breadth of activity in the Asia-Pac region. Middle class spending on eating out (and ordering in) may be one reason for a little over a tenth of the companies on the list being from the food & beverage industry; nine beauty businesses are further evidence of robust consumer spending. Beyond these, it’s a heady mix of companies from construction, manufacturing, data centres, semiconductors, automotive, financial services and pharmaceuticals, among many more sectors, that have made it to the Best Under a Billion.

From the outside, it’s tempting to associate a particular economy with a particular sector. For instance, think Taiwan and perhaps the first association is with electronics and semiconductors, thanks to the presence of giants like TSMC, Foxconn and United Microelectronics. Yes, tech-enabled manufacturing may be big in Taiwan, and, to be sure, there are makers of data centre equipment, semiconductors and electronic components from that country on the list; as are, for good measure, a $99 million in sales Korean food restaurant chain (Tofu Restaurant) and a $95 million beauty business (Shiny Brands Group).