Royal Ceramics PLC has been included in this years prestigious list of Forbes Asias 200 Best Under a Billion. It is among the 151 new entrants in this years list, which ranks top performing small and mid-size companies with sales below US$ 1 billion in Asia. Forbes surveyed 22,500 publicly listed companies in the Asia-Pacific for this years ranking.

The inclusion is based on outstanding performance on criteria such as earnings, sales growth and shareholder return on equity in the previous 12 months and over three years. Observers attribute the ranking to Rocells adherence to the best manufacturing methods, best management practices used in the production of the best quality products.

Analysts said entry of Royal Ceramics which is 100% home grown and relatively new in the corporate league is significant. The inclusion reflects the strong improvement in the performance of Royal Ceramics set up in 1990 and revamped by biggest shareholder Deputy Chairman Dhammika Perera and Managing Director Nimal Perera, they added.

In 2009/10 financial year Royal Ceramics performed its best-ever by nearly doubling its consolidated pre-tax profits to cross the Rs 1 billion mark, joining the league of top tier performers.

Royal Ceramics saw the Groups gross turnover grow by over 16% to Rs 4.96 billion and net figure up by 19% to Rs 4.45 billion. Pre-tax profit amounted to Rs 1,001 million, up by 86% over 2008/9 while profit after tax grew by 86% to Rs 944.3 million in 2009/10. Total assets grew by 4.6% to Rs 6.5 billion and shareholder funds by 27% to Rs 3.8 billion. Market value of its shares rose by 311% to Rs 113 at the end of the 2009/10 financial year.

Significant improvement in 2009/10 financial year is being sustained in the new financial year as well. Rocell reported 189% increase in its bottom line to Rs 382.4 million in the first quarter ended June 30, 2010 whilst group revenue rose by 58% to Rs 1.28 billion.

Rocell has earned its place among Asias top performers, and this certainly bodes well for the future.