Eight Indian firms can be tomorrow's leaders

New Delhi, May 10 (UNI) Eight Indian firms have been listed among the world's 300 mid-size companies that are expected to emerge as challangers to the world's leading blue-chip companies, a study says.

Cement major ACC, Hotel Leela Venture, Indian Hotels, Jain Irrigation, Lakshmi Machine Works, Marico, Siemens India, Titan Industries could be tomorrow's leaders, according to the Annual Standard and Poor's Global Challangers List released by the world's leading rating agency today.

The list identifies mid-size publicly traded companies that exhibit the strongest internal and external growth characteristics.

The 2007 class of S&P Global Challengers has representation across 37 countries. The country contributing the most members is Japan, followed by the United States and the United Kingdom.

Regionally, the Americas represent 22.67 per cent of the list's composition, followed by Asia-Pacific (41.67 per cent), Europe (33.33 per cent) and Middle East/Africa (2.33 per cent). In the sector-wise representation, Industrials lead the charge, followed by Financials and Consumer Discretionary.

''In the Darwinian sense, mid-caps are truly positioned in an evolutionary 'sweet pot,' having survived beyond their start-up phases and offering stability as well as rapid growth opportunities in the future,'' says S&P's index strategist Srikant Dash.

''Mid-cap firms can be thought of as having overcome the 'growing pains' of small firms and thus a lot less risky than small-cap start-ups. The 2007-list offers the best potential pool of companies that could become tomorrow's leaders,'' the study adds.

UNI