Dun & Bradstreet felicitates 50 of India’s leading corporate names and top performers across sectors

Winners of the D&B – Manappuram Finance Limited Corporate Awards 2014

Mumbai,June 04, 2014: Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), the world’s leading provider of global business information, knowledge and insight, today announced and presented the ‘ Dun & Bradstreet – Manapurram Finance Limited Corporate Awards 2014 ’ in Mumbai.

The occasion also marked the launch of the fourteenth edition of Dun & Bradstreet India’s premium publication, ‘India’s Top 500 Companies 2014’ by Chief Guest, Dr. Arun Shourie, while Mr. V. P. Nandakumar, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Manappuram Finance Limited, Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Executive Vice President , Canon India, Dr. M. R. Rao, Provost, Woxsen School of Business and Mr. Binod Singh, President, CEO & Member of the Board, Ilantus Technologies Private Limited delivered the address at the event.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Mr. Kaushal Sampat, President & CEO – India, Dun & Bradstreet said “Despite subdued consumption demand and inflationary pressures that persisted during FY14, the Top 500 Companies managed to show modest 8% growth in their top line earnings during first nine months of FY14 as compared to the same period previous year. On the profitability front, margins declined marginally from 7.5% during 9M FY13 to 7% during 9M FY14. On the back of policy initiatives expected from the new government, we expect revival in the domestic economy in FY15, albeit at a slower pace, as measures to boost business confidence will take time to fructify. For FY15, D&B expects the GDP to grow by 5.5%.”

Giving further insights into the Top 500 series, he added, “There are 375 companies that are common between the 2009 and 2014 editions, i.e., these are the consistent performers who have continued to remain in the list of Top 500 Companies for all five years. In fact, 37 of these 375 companies have grown from small to mid-cap or mid-cap to large categories, truly a commendable achievement in these challenging times.” he added

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. V.P. Nandakumar, MD & CEO of Manappuram Finance Limited, said, “Manappuram is honoured to partner with Dun & Bradstreet for this prestigious event. I take this opportunity to congratulate all the winners of the D&B Manappuram Finance Ltd. Corporate Awards for 2014 and also those companies who have made it to ‘India’s Top 500 Companies 2014’”.

Some Key highlights:

• Market capitalization of Top 500 companies increased by 4% in FY13, with 257 companies seeing a drop in average market cap of ` 3.8 trillion in FY13 whereas 237 companies registered an increase of ` 5.4 trillion.
• With sluggish demand, top-line growth for the Top 500 decelerated from 24.6% in previous edition during FY12 to 10.6% in FY13 while bottom-line growth decelerated from 7.30% to 5.2% for the same period. Total income to GDP ratio at current market prices stood at 50% in FY13.
• On an aggregate basis, overall expenses (excluding taxes) of Top 500 companies registered y-o-y growth of 11.4% in FY13. Increase in import bills of inputs such as coal and elevated crude oil prices led to y-o-y increase in raw material expenses of 9% in FY13 whereas finance costs have increased by a significant 20.3% y-o-y in FY13.
• High inflation and interest costs and weakening rupee impacting commodity prices dented profit margins. Despite decline in NPM, Top 500 companies increased dividend payout to shareholders from 27% in FY12 to 30% in FY13, since confidence in investments declined amid challenging economic environment.
• Private companies scored in profit growth, but PSUs paid more dividends. Profits of private companies in FY13 increased by 7.4% y-o-y whereas for PSUs it increased by 2.1% y-o-y. PSUs recorded 18.8% growth in dividends outpacing their private counterparts who registered 16.4%.
• Top-line growth of Top 500 companies moderated to 8.2% compared with 9M FY13, reflecting weak business confidence during 9M FY14. Further, bottom-line growth decelerated at 1.4% during 9M FY14 compared with 12.9% during 9M FY13.
• Aggregate expenditure of Top 500 companies during 9M FY14 decelerated to 8.1% from 12.1% during 9M FY13. Raw material expenses saw decelerated growth of 3.3% in FY14 compared with 10.7% in FY13 and interest costs saw 12.7% growth in FY14 against 22.5% growth in FY13. CCI Newswire