India third on familyowned mega businesses list

MUMBAI: At 111, India has the third highest number of publicly-listed family-owned companies in the world, according to Credit Suisse Research Institute’s latest CS Family 2018 report. China tops the list with 159 companies, followed by the US at 121.

For the report, Credit Suisse identified family businesses based on two criteria—direct shareholding by founders or descendants is at least 20%, and voting rights held by the founders or descendants are at least 20%. The survey looks at 1,015 family-owned companies around the world with a minimum market capitalisation of $250 million.

By that measure, over 50% of the companies in the BSE 100, the top 100 companies by market capitalisation listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, are family-owned. That includes Reliance Industries Ltd, Dabur India Ltd and Emami Ltd. Almost 20% of the companies are government-owned.

The number of Indian companies in the report increased from 108 in 2017 to 111 this year, while in the case of China, the number declined to 159 in 2018 from 167 in the previous year.

The average market capitalisation of the familyowned companies was $7.6 billion compared to $6.5 billion a year ago, according to the report.

In terms of market capitalisation, in Asia, excluding Japan, the family-owned company segment is dominated by China, India and Hong Kong.

China accounts for around $1.4 trillion, India for around $839 billion and Hong Kong by $633 billion. The average family-owned company in China and Hong Kong has a market capitalisation of $8.7 billion, compared to $7.6 billion in India.

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