Six companies based on the Chinese mainland are listed as Global Challengers published in Beijing on Thursday by Standard and Poor's.

COSCO Shipping, China International Marine Cont B HKD, Qinghai Salt Lake Potash, China Vanke Co B HKD, Dashang Group and Offshore Oil Engineering are on the list of 300 mid-size companies that are expected to emerge as challengers to the world's leading blue chip companies.

The list is comprised of those publicly traded companies that show the highest growth characteristics along dimensions encompassing intrinsic and extrinsic growth. The international index provider will publish the list on an annual basis, and will track its performance through annual publications.

Standard and Poor's said the Global Challengers List was based on a robust methodology that applies consistent standards to multiple countries. The attributes used to identify the companies are share price appreciation, sales growth, earnings growth and employee growth.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)