Mumbai: Reliance Industries has joined the club of select few Asian companies to rank high in a Corporate Governance Poll. Reliance Industries is the only Indian private sector company to find a place in the top 5 in the Energy Sector category in a recently conducted Corporate Governance Poll published in the latest issue of 'Asiamoney' magazine.

This poll reveals the quality of corporate governance practices of some of Asia's foremost companies. 'Corporate governance is the popular business mantra. But not all corporates practice what they preach, reveals our poll, states the magazine.

In the Corporate Governance Poll of companies in the Energy Sector, India leads with four companies followed by three companies from China, two from Thailand and one from Korea. One company, each from Pakistan and Malaysia did not score.

Among the four Indian companies in the Energy Sector, Bharat Petroleum, a public sector undertaking is ranked No.1 with a score of 78 and is closely followed by Reliance Industries in second place with a score of 72.

No other Indian company except one in the Materials Sector have figured in the remaining industry sectors like Banks, Capital goods, Diversified financials, Real estate, Semiconductors & Semiconductor equipment, Technology hardware & equipment, Telecommunication services and Utilities.

The poll, now in its second year, selected the top 10 industry groups from the MSCI AC Asia Free ex- Japan index in the Asia-Pacific region.

In addition to the self-assessment responses received from corporates, responses were also received from research analysts of leading brokerage firms.

The magazine noted that the self-assessment component revealed that companies were not entirely convinced of their own perfection. Only 46% gave themselves full marks for their company's level of corporate governance.

Investors and analysts were of the opinion that standards are improving across the region as regulations become stricter and investors become more demanding.

The poll reveals that, amongst countries Taiwan has the maximum number of companies in the top 12 with 24 companies, closely followed by Korea and Hong Kong with 23 and 22 companies respectively. There were five companies from India to feature in the top ranks.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is India's largest private sector company on all major financial parameters with gross turnover of Rs 65,061 crore (US $ 13.7 billion), cash profit of Rs 7,565 crore (US $ 1.6 billion), net profit of Rs 4,104 crore (US $ 864 million), net worth of Rs 30,327 crore (US $ 6.4 billion) and total assets of Rs 63,737 crore (US $ 13.4 billion). RIL features in the Forbes Global list of world's 400 best big companies and in FT Global 500 list of world's largest companies.

RIL has emerged as the 'Best Managed Company' in India in a study by 'Business Today' and A T Kearney. RIL was named in the World's Most Respected Companies list published by 'Financial Times' based on a global survey and research conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers. RIL also emerged as the most respected among Indian companies and amongst the 10 most respected energy and chemical companies in the world.

Agencies