Axis Bank’s Burgundy Private and Hurun India release the second edition of ‘500 most valuable private companies in India’ list

Mumbai, December 03 , 2022:Burgundy Private, Axis Bank’s Private Banking Business andHurun Indialaunched the ‘2022Burgundy Private Hurun India 500’,second edition of the list of the 500 most valuable companies in India. These companies are ranked according to their value, defined as market capitalization for listed companies and valuations for non-listed companies. The cut-off date to arrive at this list was 30th October 2022. This list refers to companies headquartered in India only; state-owned companies and subsidiaries of foreign as well as Indian companies are not included.

To make it to the ‘2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500’ list, companies required to have a minimum value of INR 6,000 crore, equivalent to US$725 million. On an average, companies from the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 were founded in 1985, and today are worth a total of INR 226 lakh crore (US$2.7tn), which remains flatwhen compared with the inaugural edition. Both BSE SENSEX and NIFTY 50 rose by 2% year on year, whilst the S&P BSE 500 was up 2.5% over the same period last year.

Commenting on the launch, Amitabh Chaudhry, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Axis Bank said: “Burgundy Private is delighted to have partnered again with Hurun India in celebrating India’s 500 most valuable companies. The 2nd edition of the Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 report, featuring India’s 500 most valuable companies, could not have come at a better time. From a ‘rare bright spot,’ when most world economies are staring at a slowdown, India is slated to be entering its decade of eminence. Indian companies and their leadership deserve great acclamation for their contribution to the country’s unique positioning today, and they will play an even bigger role in making India the world’s third largest economy over the next decade.”

“Despite global challenges, the companies on the ‘2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500’ list created value to the tune of INR 226 lakh crore (USD 2.7 trillion), for their stakeholders. As India’s leading wealth management franchise, Burgundy Private witnessed this value creation from close quarters. The companies on this year’s list contributed immensely to nation building. The topline of these 500 companies is equivalent to 29% of India’s GDP, and these companies employ up to 1.5% of the country’s total workforce. What stood out in the report is that 67 companies on the list are younger than 10 years. These new-age companies will indeed shape the coming decade with their entrepreneurship, technology and digital innovations.”

“Axis Bank remains optimistic about the growth opportunities in the Indian economy. Our ability to deliver ‘One Axis’ as a full-service bank, offering varied solutions across all financial services, is a key area of our distinctiveness, allowing us to bring unique solutions to our customers. As India moves towards its most important decade, we look forward to partnering with the companies on the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 list, as they move towards the next milestone in their growth journey”, he added.

Anas Rahman Junaid MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India said:

“It is easy to see why the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 represents the most powerful group of companies in India. With a total value of US$2.7tn, which is equal to India’s current GDP, they make up the backbone of India’s economy. Together, these 500 companies had combined sales of US$820bn and employed 7.3 million staff, which is more than the working population of the United Arab Emirates. If you want to understand what is really going on in the Indian economy, understanding the stories behind the 2022 Burgundy PrivateHurun India 500, India’s most valuable companies, is a good place to start.Hurun India is delighted to partner with Burgundy Private, Axis Bank’s Private Banking Business to release the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500.”

“This year, the threshold to make the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 was INR 6,000 crore, up 15% from last year. This is impressive, considering the cut-off to enter the Hurun Global 500 has come down by 23%. Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 indicates that India is possibly the brightest spot amidst the global economic turmoil. At this rate of growth, the cut-off to enter Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 might well be closer to INR 10,000 crore in five years.”

“The 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500lost INR 1,78,965 crore in value. The sectors that enjoyed strong growth areEnergy, Retail, Hospitality and Consumer Goods. Software and Services sector was the hardest hit and cumulatively lost INR 6 lakh crore over last year. On the back of inflation and looming recession, Indian IT outsourcing companiesare expected to go slow on closing big-ticket deals.”

“The medical diagnostics sector, which enjoyed very high growth during Covid-19 on the back of testing mandates, reversed gains and shed around INR 13,000 crore in value.”

“To create one of the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 is a crowning achievement for anyone, but there are 18individuals who have done it more than once. Gautam Adani has launched 7 companies to the list and has acquired the 8^th – Ambuja Cements. Perhaps it is not surprising thathe is the richest person on the subcontinent. The others include N Chandrasekaran who chairs Tata Sons that added six companies to the list and Sanjeev Goenka and Kumar Mangalam Birla who have added three each to the list.”

“These days, the hottest topic for a panel discussion in start-up conferences is start-up valuations, which is the heart of the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500. Public markets listing which is considered a litmus test for valuations, has ended up becoming a poisoned chalice for a few. For instance, some of the biggest value shedders in the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 are start-ups such as Policy Bazaar, Paytm, Zomato and Nykaa which lost 68%, 59%, 50% and 48% respectively in value since last year. This trend is a clear indication that start-up valuations based on “2021 parameters” in private markets are up for a bumpy ride”

“In the long run, start-up value creation is going to significantly increase the velocity of companies entering the future editions of the Burgundy Private Hurun India 500. For instance, Zepto and Mensa Brands took just 2 years since their founding year to enter the list. The next wave of most valuable start-ups will be championed by founders who are building for the bottom 800 million people and for climate sustainability.

“Mumbai dominates when it comes tothe 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 companies, home to 32% of the India 500 with 159 companies, and 48% or INR 108 lakh crore of the total value, significantly ahead of second-placed Bengaluru with 63 companies, representing 11% of the total value.”

“Value is perhaps the best way to measure a company’s performance, since value takes into account not just the current performance of a company but also its future potential. If a business is ‘valued at US$30bn, for example, it means that investors believe it is going to deliver profits of US$30bn within ten years. This changes as new information comes to light, such as impact of wars, inflation, government data, regulations, and general sentiment.”

“Curiously, some of the most valuable companies in India had surprisingly low sales. 61 of the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 companies had sales of less than INR 1,000 crore in FY 2022.  Adani Total Gas, for example, had revenues of ‘only’ INR 3,248 crore and only 570 employees, yet had a market cap of INR 3,96,245 crore, whilstunicorn Physics Wallah hada value of INR 9,100 crore, despite generating less than INR 233 crore of sales in FY 2022.”

“53% of the companies on the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500, which is ranked by value, are not in the Fortune India 500, which is ranked by sales. The difference came from Hurun excluding companies like Reliance Capital and Varroc Engineering, which had large sales but did not generate enough value to take them over the INR 6,000 crore threshold. Another reason is that the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 does not include state-owned companies, the likes of the State Bank of India and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. Curiously, only 60 state-owned listed companies would have made the cut-off of INR 6,000 crore.”

“Hurun has been promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research since 1999. Starting with the rich list and philanthropy lists, Hurun has gone on to rank unicorns and recently the 500 most valuable companies, on a global level as well as for individual countries, most significantly China and India.”  

“Regional governments are competing to attract the most valuable companies in the country, companies from the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500. These companies represent the biggest opportunity for tax revenues, quality employment and industry leadership.”

“India’s start-ups are producing some significant companies. Just under 13% of the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 are less than 10 years old, led by Adani Transmission, Adani Green Energy, Swiggy, Razorpay, and CRED. Of these startups, 71 are Unicorns and 8 are Gazelles”

“Women make up 16% of the boards of the companies from the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500. As India’s economy grows and the India 500 becomes bigger, expect the percentage of women board directors to grow too. The 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 are some of the biggest employers of women in the country led by Tata Consultancy Services with about 2.1 lakh women employees.”

“Family businesses still make up the bulk of the Indian economy. 70% of the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 are family-run businesses”.

“The 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 arespread across 27 different industries, demonstrating the overall growth story of the Indian economy.”

“A unique feature of the Indian economy istraditional industrial groups, many of which started over 100 years ago. The top 10 industrial groups own 61 or 12% of the 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500between them, led by Tata Group with 15 companies followed by the Adani Group with 8 and Murugappa Group with 6.”

“The stories of these companies tell the story of the modern Indian economy”, concluded Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India.

Methodology

The 2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 is a list of the 500 most valuable companies that are headquartered in India. Government/ State-owned companies and subsidiaries of foreign as well as Indian companies are excluded. Although the cut-off date for the list is 30th October 2022, we have taken an exception for Global Health, Bikaji Foods International and Five-Star Business Finance for which we have considered the closing market cap of the listing day. The aforementioned companies were in the process of going public/ getting listed during the cut-off date.

Valuing private companies is as much an art as it is a science. Hurun India may have missed some

companies, but our endeavor is to develop the most comprehensive report of its kind with an objective to

identify and acknowledge India’s top businesses. Hurun Report’s team of researchers have traveled the length and breadth of the country, cross-checking information with entrepreneurs, industry experts, journalists, bankers and other sources of publiclyavailable data.

For unlisted companies, Hurun Research’s valuation is based on a comparison with their listed equivalents

using prevailing industry multiples such as Price to Earnings, Price to Sales, EV to sales, EV to EBITDA. Other methodologies such as Discounted Cash Flow and Tobin’s Q are also used. In certain cases of early-stage companies, Hurun used the First Chicago Method for valuation. Financial information used is from the latest available annual reports or audited financial statements.

To view the detailed ‘2022 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500’ report,pleaseclick here