Seven Singapore firms in Deloitte's Fast 500 list

These companies achieved average revenue growth of 385% over three years, reports Raju Chellam

SEVEN Singapore-based infocomm companies have made it to the inaugural 'Asia-Pacific Technology Fast 500' rankings compiled by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT). The list ranks fast-growing tech companies - which have achieved average revenue growth of 385 per cent over three years - across the Asia-Pacific region.

The Singapore seven are MediaRing Ltd (ranked 20), Ecquaria Technologies (37), PCI Ltd (175), Nanofilm Technologies International (192), SingTel (202), Allied Telesyn International (204), and Huan Hsin Holdings (212).

'The rapid growth achieved by these companies was not limited to emerging firms, but included some well established and mature businesses,' said Ian Thatcher, DTT's lead partner. 'Up to 60 companies identified in the DTT Fast 500 had revenues in excess of US$100 million, which demonstrates high growth is not limited to new or early stage companies.'

The top five companies in the Asia-Pac list managed to grow more than 15-fold in the last three years, developing or vending equipment in the communications, networking and Internet related sectors.

• TCL Mobile Communications from China grew 263-fold in the three years to Dec 31, 2001.

• Chaos Group Ltd from Australia grew 51-fold during the last three years to Dec 31, 2001.

• Corecess Inc from South Korea grew 23-times during the above period.

• Faith Inc from Japan grew 16-fold during the period.

• Cybird Company Ltd from Japan grew 15-fold during the period.

'In fact, Asia-Pacific tech companies appear to be more optimistic about their future growth, compared to their peers in Europe and the US,' Mr Thatcher said. 'This is not surprising given that China and India are two of the fastest growing economies in the world, with China being regarded (among 150 CEOs surveyed across the region) as the most opportune marketplace.'

Software firms and companies in communications and networking together comprise nearly 66 per cent of the winning companies. 'Notably, companies involved in the semicon sector only comprised 8 per cent, a testament to low growth environment facing that sector,' he said. 'Software development firms in particular were able to seize opportunities due to their scaleable business models. There were also considerable niche opportunities in wireless and Internet applications for communications and networking firms.'

Some key findings from the survey:

• 91 per cent of companies said they were very confident about their growth prospects, despite the current economic slowdown.

• 20 per cent said a highly competitive marketplace was a key challenge.

• 10 per cent said the current economic slowdown was their biggest challenge.

• 81 per cent of respondents said they planned to increase their headcount this year.

• 20 per cent more headcount was being planned by some software companies this year.

• A large majority said China was their biggest target market, followed by North America (18 per cent) and Europe (16 per cent).

DTT provides consulting, tax, assurance and other services. It employs 100,000 people across 140 countries worldwide. In the Asia-Pacific region, the company has 17,000 people in 29 countries.