How we arrived at the BT 500
IN A NUTSHELL |
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| April 1 to September 30, 2009 is the reference period. |
| Started with 5,000 companies listed on BSE. Segregated public sector companies, banks and financial institutions from the list. |
| Out of the 4,902 companies, only 2,962 companies traded for 20 per cent (or 25 days) of the 121 trading days on the BSE during the six months between April and September. |
| Average market capitalisation of each company for the reference period was used instead of specific day (except in the case of RIL). |
| Ranking of the top 1,000 most valuable companies on the basis of average market capitalisation. |
| Companies are also ranked on sales, net profit and assets. |
This is the 18th edition of the BT 500 list and with each year there has been value-addition to the list in terms of data and various other parameters to judge the value of a company.
Two notable value-additions this year are industry-wise break-ups and percentage change in market capitalisation over the previous corresponding period. There has been no change in the methodology. This year, BT is back with its usual practice of considering the first 6 months between April and September 2009 to calculate the average market capitalisation.
In the previous year, we had taken the first seven months of the fiscal, between April 1 and October 31, in order to capture the impact of the fall in stock prices in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. So the rankings of companies of 2008 are not exactly the same as in last year’s edition.
KEY TO TABLES |
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| All figures in Rs crore are rounded off. |
| Financials are for FY ended March 31, 2009 unless otherwise stated. Results are audited and standalone. |
| For RIL, the market cap is based on the expanded equity capital postmerger with Reliance Petroleum and closing price on Sept. 30, 2009. For Sept. ’08, March ’09, March ’08, the market cap is for RIL alone. |
| * Bajaj Holdings & Investment was renamed Bajaj Auto. |
| NL=Not listed |
| NA=Not available. This applies to companies whose audited results were not available at the time of writing. |
| na=Not applicable |
| RONW= Return on net worth. This ratio indicates the return on shareholder’s total equity. |
| ROCE= Return on capital employed. Indicates the efficiency and profitability of a company’s capital investments. |
| EPS= Earnings per share, portion of profit allocated to each outstanding share. |
The rankings are based on average market cap for the April-September 2009 period, except in the case of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), where the market value is based on the company’s closing price on September 30, and on an expanded equity base post-merger with Reliance Petroleum Ltd. (RPL). Trading in RPL shares had stopped on September 25, and the merged RIL began trading from that day. So RPL does not figure in the listing even though it was traded till September 24, 2009.
THE PROCESS
To arrive at the list of India’s most valuable companies, BT relied on the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) corporate database Prowess. Initially, 5,000 companies listed on BSE were included in the list. From this, public sector banks and companies were excluded as there is a separate list for the state-run companies.
Following this, 4,902 companies were considered. Only those companies were included in the top 1,000 list that were traded for at least 20 per cent (25 days) of the number of trading days (121 days) for the period under study (RIL being an exception for the reasons stated above). After the companies were identified they were ranked based on their average market capitalisation for 2009. In the PSU rankings, NHPC and Oil India were excluded as they were traded for less than 25 days.
FINANCIAL PARAMETERS
While the rankings are based on market value, the BT 500 also gives financial data on sales, net profit, and total assets (along with rankings), as well as profits as a percentage of sales, return on net worth, return on capital employed and earnings per share. For most companies, the financial year ended March 2009 has been considered.
Standalone numbers—as against consolidated results—have been taken for all companies. As a result, there may be a few companies whose sales and profits ranking would have got distorted as a consolidated picture is more representative of their operations. For instance, Cairn India would have been ranked at #230 in sales and #39 in profits (as against #660 and #362 now) if consolidated numbers had been used. Similarly, GMR Infrastructure and GVK Power are ranked #771 and #879 in sales, #242 and # 560 in profits, in the BT 500, but would have been up at #82 and #527 in sales, #97 and #228 in profits, respectively, had consolidated results been used.
DEFINITIONS
- Sales: Operating income and other income.
- Net Profit: Profit after tax.
- Market Capitalisation: Stock price multiplied by the number of outstanding shares.
- ROCE: Profit before interest and tax as a percentage of the capital employed (fixed assets + circulating capital - current liabilities)
- RONW: Net profit divided by net worth (total assets - total liabilities).
- Earnings Per Share: Net profit divided by number of outstanding shares.
