Chinese businesses make US firm’s most-valued companies list

A US-based executive-search firm’s ranking of what it says are the world’s most highly valued companies for 2018 features more businesses from Asia and China than the US.

Heidrick & Struggles on Thursday released its "Superaccelerators", a group of 19 companies among 500 companies with the highest market capitalizations in the world that have achieved high levels of sustained organic growth and profitability according to the Chicago-based firm’s standards.

The firm said while the US dominated the list for the past two years, the 2018 list has shifted toward more representation from Asia Pacific with 11 companies from the region, including seven from China and one from Hong Kong. China had six companies on the 2017 list and three in 2016.

Chinese companies on the 2018 list include Tencent Holdings Ltd, Ping An Insurance (Group) Co Ltd, Kweichow Moutai Co Ltd, Country Garden Holdings, China Evergrande Group, and NetEase Inc. AIA Group Limited, based in Hong Kong and China, was also on the list.

Only six of the companies on this year’s list are based in the US, down from 16 in 2017 and in 2016. Two companies are in Europe, up from none last year and one in 2016.

The top-ranked company is US-based Alphabet Inc, parent of Google. Other American companies on the 2018 ranking include Visa Inc and Charles Schwab.