Hong Kong, Jan 05, 2012 (ACN Newswire via COMTEX) —
After months of meticulous research and calculation, the “Top 100 Hong Kong-listed Companies 2011” results are officially announced today. The ranking clearly shows that mainland-based enterprises continue to constitute a high proportion of the territory’s top-tier listed companies, with mainland financial stocks leading the way. Overall, mainland-based enterprises in finance and real estate/construction sectors account for the highest percentage of all the ranked companies, and China Mobile (00941) tops the list for a second time.

China’s largest Internet portal, Tencent (QQ.com) and Hong Kong’s prestigious investor-focused financial website, Quamnet.com, have jointly organized the ranking for the second year. The ranking gained ardent support from the Chamber of Hong Kong-listed Companies and local academic institutions; Dr. Billy Mak, Associate Professor at Department of Finance and Decision Sciences of the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) served as an independent advisor to develop the list. As with similar lists in major markets around the world, the latest ranking is an important reference to assist investors in identifying the value of outstanding Hong Kong-listed stocks.

“Top 100 Hong Kong-listed Companies” is the first ranking jointly launched by parties across the mainland and the HKSAR. Any company listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) with at least one annual report on or before 30 September, 2011 will automatically be reviewed for the ranking. In order to emphasize comprehensive performance rather than a single perspective, all companies have been evaluated by five criteria: market capitalization (45%), net profit (35%), revenue (10%), return on equity (5%) and dividend yield (5%). Calculations are based on the closing stock prices on 30 September, 2011 and data from these companies’ latest annual reports dated on or before 30 September, 2011. The final list is therefore determined with weighted composite scores of the above-mentioned five criteria, and the lower the score is, the higher the position will be.

China Mobile leads the ranking again. In three primary weightings (market capitalization, net profit and revenue), the telecommunication giant is ranked the 1st, 4th and 4th position, respectively. However, unlike other H-share companies, it should be noted that China Mobile is listed under the red chip category, and 100% of the company’s shares are counted in the market capitalization, while HKEx standards exclude H shares from the calculation of market value of other mainland companies.

However, the telecommunications sector as a whole does not demonstrate remarkable results this year: only three companies from the industry are on the list, compared with four last year. As for IT and software stocks, Tencent Holdings (00700) is ranked in 12th place. However, as one of the organizers, Tencent Holdings is excluded from the final list.

Financial stocks are big winners with five listed among the Top 10 companies: China Construction Bank (CCB, 00939) and HSBC Holdings (00005) occupy the second and third places, while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC, 01398), Standard Chartered (02888) and Bank of China (BOC, 03988) are ranked the 7th, 9th and 10th, respectively. There are altogether as many as 21 financial companies on the entire list, representing the strength of the industry.

The number of property and construction stocks drops from 26 in 2010 to 21, and Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP, 00016) achieves the highest ranking in the sector (the 13th), down by two positions compared with that of last year.

It is also noteworthy that the number of service-focused companies increases from 8 to 13, with most of them being gambling and entertainment stocks, such as Sands China (01928, the 24th), Wynn Macau (01128, the 41st), SJM Holdings (00880, the 47th) and Galaxy Entertainment (00027, the 69th).

Mainland-based companies continue to dominate the ranking, as eight out of the Top 10 companies are giant mainland state-owned enterprises carrying the state titles. HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered are the only two non-mainland companies with Top 10 rankings.

The Top 100 companies comprise the main list of the ranking and all companies are also ranked in nine sub-lists according to a number of specific criteria as follows:

Top100- Top 10 Turnover

Top100- Top 10 Turnover Growth

Top100- Top 10 Net Profit

Top100- Top 10 Net Profit Growth

Top100- Top 10 Market Capitalization

Top100- Top 10 Return on Equity

Top100- Top 10 Dividend Yield

Top100- Top 10 Price Growth