Standard & Poor's Inc. included 15 U.S. industrial companies among 73 companies based in the United States that made its annual Global Challengers, a list released Wednesday of mid-sized companies that show the "highest growth characteristics."
The 2008 version of the annual list includes companies from 33 countries, with more companies _ 76 _ coming from China than anywhere else, and the U.S. second. A total of 14 companies are listed from Hong Kong. Germany and Switzerland round out the top five, with 13 companies each.
Just squeaking onto the list were Ireland, Indonesia, Spain and the Czech Republic, each with one company named.
Regionally, 39 percent of the 300 are from Asia/Pacific nations, 30 percent from Europe, just over 29 percent from the Americas and less than 2 percent from the Middle East and Africa. That's a slight decline for Asia/Pacific countries from last year, when they led the list with a 41.7 percent share.
The companies, which are broken down into nine sectors, are examined by S&P using the company's public listing in its home country. To be considered, each company must have a market value between $1 billion and $5 billion, and must have shown share price gains, earnings per share growth, sales growth and employee growth in the last three years.
The list, published since 2006, is reconstituted once a year in April using data ending March 31.
Industrials made up the largest sector overall.
The U.S. companies in the industrials sector that made the list are: Woodward Governor Co., Valmont Industries Inc., URS Corp., Perini Corp., Middleby Corp., Kansas City Southern, Heico Corp., General Cable Corp., Gardner Denver Inc., FTI Consulting Inc., Covanta Holding Corp., Ceradyne Inc., Bucyrus International Inc., Belden Inc., Barnes Group Inc.
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