NEW YORK, Aug 22- Five Indian companies are listed among Forbes’ 100 most innovative companies in the world, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.The annual ‘World’s Most Innovative Companies’ list released Wednesday is topped by California-based global cloud computing company Salesforce for the fourth year in a row.
The five Indian companies are consumer goods company Hindustan Unilever at 14th place, IT major Tata Consultancy Services at 57th, construction services firm Larsen & Toubro at 58th, pharma major Sun Pharma Industries at 65th and Bajaj Auto at 96th.
Hindustan Unilever recorded an innovation premium of 54.7 percent, a measure of how much investors have bid up the stock price of a company above the value of its existing business based on expectations of future innovative results such as new products, services and markets.
The innovation premium of Mumbai-based TCS was 39.58 percent and had a market cap of US$71.25 billion as of May this year.Larsen and Toubro had an innovation premium of 39.4 percent and market cap of US$19.81 billion.
Sun Pharma and Bajaj Auto had an innovation premium of 38.34 and 31.73 percent and market cap of US$19.88 billion and US$10 billion.Forbes’ most innovative company, Salesforce, reported a market cap of US$35.87 billion and innovation premium of 75.9 percent.
“A key to Salesforce’s success has been its ability to move into bigger companies, selling to enterprise-class customers who require more modifications and attention than a small or medium business,” Forbes said.
Other companies making up the top five in the list are Connecticut-based biotech firm Alexion Pharmaceuticals (2nd place), British semi-conductor company ARM Holdings (3rd), fast moving consumer goods company Unilever Indonesia (4th), and New York-based biopharmaceutical company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (5th).
The US was home to a majority of companies on the list with 41 firms headquartered in the country followed by Europe with 29 companies.
– BERNAMA
