Stock Screen: Cherry-Picking the World's Best Companies

Here are 10 companies based in countries ranging from South Africa to Mexico that are global growth titans

To arrive at its list of Global Champions 2009, global consulting firm A.T. Kearney culled from the 2,500 largest companies that operate internationally. In the firm's second annual ranking of the global elite, A. T. Kearney again measured five-year sales growth, as well as "value creation"—the rise in company's market capitalization less any increase in its capital.

BusinessWeek ran a screen on the 40 companies at the top of A.T. Kearney's ranking. (The consultancy expanded its annual list from 25 companies for BusinessWeek.) We screened for growth measures and a valuation measure. On the growth front, we calculated the median one-year and five-year earnings-per-share growth for the group (as of 2009's second quarter) and eliminated those that didn't fall in the top half.

Then, we looked at the current price-to-earnings ratio for the MSCI World index— 26—and only kept companies with p-e ratios below that number.

The result: Ten companies based in countries ranging from South Africa to Mexico, and operating in industries as far afield as engineering and apparel.

Company

Ticker

Country

Industry

Price-Earnings Ratio*

5-Year EPS Growth**

1-Year EPS Growth**

Bilfinger Berger

GBFG.HA

Germany

Engineering & Contracting

7

237%

808%

World Fuel Services

INT

U.S.

Oil & Gas Services

11

548%

31%

Saipem

SPMI.MI

Italy

Engineering & Contracting

11

339%

5%

Telefonica

TEF

Spain

Telecommunications

12

166%

-4%

Fluor

FLR

U.S.

Engineering & Contracting

13

242%

61%

MTN Group

MTNJ.F

South Africa

Telecommunications

14

129%

22%

America Movil

AMX

Mexico

Telecommunications

15

666%

35%

Fresenius Medical

FMS

Germany

Medical Devices & Services

18

111%

4%

Inditex

ITX.F

Spain

Apparel

21

116%

0%

Anheuser-Busch Inbev

BUD

Belgium

Beverages

25

213%

-11%

MSCI Index

26

*As of Sept. 25

**As of Q2 2009; calculated using currency of origin

Data: Bloomberg