Only five companies from the Philippines made it to Forbes Asia’s 2025 Best Under A Billion list, which recognizes 200 top-performing small and mid-sized listed companies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Filipino companies in the list are led by Converge Information & Communications Technology Solutions with a market value of $2.33 billion, Apex Mining Co. Inc. ($687 million), A. Soriano Corp. ($643 million), Philippine Bank of Communications ($170 million), and Figaro Culinary Group ($65 million).

Sponsored by Resorts World Sentosa, the unranked list spotlights 200 publicly-listed companies in the region with annual sales above $10 million and below $1 billion.

From a universe of more than 19,000 listed companies, the companies on this list were selected based on a composite score using measures such as debt, sales, and earnings-per-share growth over both the most recent fiscal one- and three-year periods, and the strongest one- and five-year average returns on equity.

With trade tensions looming over the Asia-Pacific region, growth is predicted to continue to slow, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Despite these challenges, the annual Best Under A Billion list showcases businesses that remained resilient over the past year and, in many cases, thrived.

The buoyant financial services sector propelled 18 companies onto the list, more than double from the eight that appeared last year. The beauty industry continues to shine, with 13 companies, mostly South Korean, making the cut.

Other companies in the region have benefited from the gathering momentum in the segments in which they operate, such as renewable energy, electric vehicles, and data centers. In total, 69 companies returned to the 2025 list from the previous year.

Among the energy companies on this year’s list is HD Renewable Energy, a Taipei-based solar power and battery storage systems company. The company posted a record NT$10 billion ($310 million) in revenue in 2024, up 73 percent from a year earlier, on growing demand for green energy.

It is expanding in markets overseas with joint ventures in the Philippines, Japan, and Australia, where it recently spent NT$290 million to buy the development rights to 795MW of energy-storage projects in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland.