Suntrust sole Filipino firm on Forbes’ ‘Asia’s 200 Best Under A Billion’ list

Real estate firm Suntrust Home Developers Inc. was the sole Filipino company that made it to this year’s “Asia’s 200 Best Under A Billion” list compiled by Forbes Magazine.

Made available to reporters on Thursday, the list takes into account 200 small and midsized publicly listed enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region with sales under $1 billion.

Suntrust was included on the list with a net income of $2 million, sales of $11 million, and a market value of $31 million.

According to its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Suntrust posted a net profit of P11.794 million in the first quarter of 2019, from P5.909 million a year earlier.

Suntrust’s revenue rose to P143.319 million from P123.142 million, while costs and expenses totaled to P131.525 million from P117.232 million.

Suntrust is engaged in property management through wholly-owned subsidiary First Oceanic Property Management Inc. (FOPMI), covering residential and office buildings, and private estates.

“The Best Under A Billion list demonstrates the dynamism of Asia’s small and medium-sized businesses in creating value across the region,” said Justin Doebele, editor of Forbes Asia.

Forbes said some 19,000 candidate companies were screened for this year’s list which produced the highest sales and earnings per share growth in the most recent fiscal year.

Among those taken into consideration were publicly traded companies with annual revenue of between $5 million and $1 billion in the Asia-Pacific region.

From the initial 19,000 candidates, roughly 1,400 passed the criteria for profitability, growth and modest indebtedness, and was finally narrowed down to 200, and are not ranked.

Among the companies on this year’s list are China-based hormone products maker Changchun High & New Technology, Indonesia brokerage Kresna Graha Investama, Tokyo-based Akatsuki, and Taiwan-based semiconductor manufacturer Aspeed Technology.

As of the noon break Thursday, shares of Suntrust were trading at P0.75 apiece, down 3 centavos or 3.85% from the previous close of P0.78 per share.

Suntrust shares closed up 2 centavos or 2.56% at P0.80 per share.

Among the notable alumni of the list is local fastfood operator Jollibee Foods Corp. —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News