LITTLE KNOWN FIRM TOPS WEALTHIEST INDIAN COMPANIES LIST

New Delhi
The Economic Times

Tatas, Birlas and Ambanis are names that are synonymous in India for wealthy industrial groups, but they have been beaten by little known names, barring Procter & Gamble, in a list of top 10 corporate houses named by the government.

SPT Commodities tops the list of country's top 10 corporate houses in terms of turnover at Rs 9,63,516 crore, followed by Frost International (Rs 8,55,739 crore), Corporate Affairs Minister P C Gupta informed the Rajya Sabha today.

As per the information provided by the Ministry, two of the P&G companies -- Procter and Gamble Home Products Pvt Ltd, fourth in the list has a turnover of Rs 8,43,905 crore while Procter and Gamble Hygiene and Health Care has a turnover of Rs 6,31,001 crore.

Further down in the list are Tetra Pak India NRC Limited, Behr India and LT Foods Limited.

Giving details about foreign companies that have invested the maximum in India between January 2000 and July 2008, the ministry said UK-based Cairn UK Holding had pumped in Rs 6,663.24 crore through its Indian subsidiary, followed by Oracle Global from Mauritius with investments worth 4,805.58 crore in India's iflex Solutions.

Other companies like CMP Asia have Foreign Direct Investments worth Rs 2638 crore in HDFC, Merrill Lynch Mauritius in DSP Merrill Lynch at Rs 2230 crore.

Also, Tata Consultancy Services has FDI worth Rs 2,148 crore by a group of Non-Resident Indians. Besides, Enron Power USA had made investments in Dhabol Power Company.