SME GROWTH EXCELLENCE RECOGNITION
DEFINITIONS AND RATIONALISATION

The Singapore SME Growth Excellence companies are selected and ranked based on their audited financial figures, i.e. Sales/Turnover or Net Profit for financial period ending between 1 June 2008 and 31 May 2009. Comparative financial information is extracted from the companies' latest financial statements.

1. Qualification Criteria

To qualify for the Recognition, companies must satisfy the following criteria:

• Be registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) as a limited or private limited company. Only limited exempt private companies which voluntarily submit their audited financial statements, or whose financials are available from ACRA, will be included in the ranking exercise. Branches of foreign companies, Cooperatives and Company Limited by Guarantee are excluded.
• Conducted at least 2 full years of operation.
• Have relevant audited financial statements directly submitted to DP Information Network Pte Ltd or be available from ACRA. Companies will be excluded from the ranking where the information is not available or incomplete. Examples include the limited exempt private companies which are not required to file their financial statements or where Sales/Turnover figures are not presented in the audited statements.
• Be ranked in Singapore SME 500 and/or Emerging 200 for 2 years.
• Have an annual Sales/Turnover of less than SGD 80 million.
• Have Fixed Assets of less than SGD 15 million.
• Have at least 30% Singapore local equity ownership and not be a subsidiary of a Public Listed Company.
• Have an Investment Grade (DP1 – DP4) or High Yield (DP5 – DP6) DP Credit Rating.
• For SME Growth Excellence for Sales/Turnover, recipients must:
• Be profitable during both the SME500 ranking periods
• Have attained at least $20 million in Sales / Turnover in the previous SME500 Ranking Period
• Must also attain a profit margin of at least 5% in the current SME500 Ranking Period
• Have a credit rating that is at least the same or better as compared to the previous year
• For SME Growth Excellence for Most Promising Enterprises, recipients must:
• Be profitable during both the SME500 ranking periods
• Have attained between $10 million and $20 million in Sales/Turnover in the current SME500 Ranking Period
• Have also attained a profit margin of at least 5% in the current SME500 Ranking Period
• Have a credit rating that is at least the same or better as compared to the previous year
• For SME Growth Excellence for Net Profit, recipients must:
• Have attained at least $500,000 in Net Profit in the previous SME500 Ranking period
• Have a profit margin of at least 5% in the current SME500 Ranking
• Have a credit rating that is at least the same or better as compared to the previous year
• For SME Growth Excellence for Credit Rating, recipients must:
• Have an improved Credit Rating Grade in current SME500 Ranking, moving from High Yield to Investment Grade will be recognised in this category.
• For SME Growth Excellence for Internationalising SMEs, recipients must:
• Have qualified for either of the categories of Sales /Turnover, Most Promising Enterprises, Net Profit and Credit Rating recognition, and have shown exceptional performance internationally. Only these prequalified companies will be recognised in this category.

2. Sales/Turnover

One of the most fundamental measures of a company's financial performance, representing total Sales/Turnover or Gross Operating Income as reported by the company in its financial statements. The Sales/Turnover figures for individual companies include sales to related or holding companies. The revenue from banks and other financial institutions include interest and non-interest incomes. Figures for the insurance companies include premium incomes and other investment income.

3. Net Profit

Net Profit or Profit/Loss after tax includes Profit/Loss of subsidiary and associate companies but excludes the adjustment of minority interests. Figures in parenthesis "( )" indicate losses.

4. Total Assets

Total Assets include current assets, fixed assets, investments and amounts owed by related or holding companies at its fiscal year-end. Expenditure carried forward, expenditure deterred, goodwill and identifiable intangibles such as patents, trademarks and mastheads are excluded.

5. Total Liabilities

Total Liabilities include all current and long term liabilities at a company's year-end.

6. Shareholders' Funds

This is the sum of all paid-up capital, share premium, retained earnings, capital reserves and other reserves at a company's year-end but excludes minority interests. Currency translation reserves are included as part of the Shareholders' Funds.

7. Group Consolidated Account

Companies are ranked in terms of consolidated performance, if available. This includes both the performance of the company and its subsidiaries. All inter-company transactions are eliminated upon consolidation.

8. Holding vs Subsidiary Companies

To ensure that the ranking list is as comprehensive and complete as possible, all individual companies who qualify for this ranking and whose financial statements are available, are ranked. Subsidiary companies are therefore evaluated and ranked as a separate legal entity from its holding companies.

9. Annualisation of Figures

Financial information stated is based on a company's financial year ending within 1 June 2007 to 31 May 2008. For changes in accounting period, annualised Sales/Turnover and Net Profit (After Tax) figures will be taken into consideration. Shareholders' equity and assets are not annualised. (refer to examples 1 & 2)

Below are two examples on the computation :

Example 1 - Company with reported Sales/Turnover and Net Profit (After Tax) for over 18 months, will be annualised by using the fraction 12/18 :

	Period from 1 July 2006 to 31 December 2007 ($'000)	Annualised Value For Ranking (Figures Adjusted to 12 months) ($'000)
Sales / Turnover	18,000	12,000 [i.e. 18,000 x 12/18]
Net Profit	6,000	4,000 [i.e. 6,000 x 12/18]

Example 2 - Company which has changed its accounting period from March to December such that there are two accounting periods in 2007, i.e., year ended 31 March 2007 and period ending 31 December 2007 (9 months), will be ranked on the following basis:

	Year ended 31 March 2007 ($'000)	Period ended 31 December 2007 ($'000)	Annualised Value for Ranking (Figures Adjusted to 12 months) ($'000)
Sales / Turnover	30,000	20,000	27,500 [i.e. 20,000 + (30,000 x 3/12)]
Net Profit	10,000	9,000	11,500 [i.e. 9,000 + (10,000 x 3/12)]
Shareholders' Funds	20,000	22,000	22,000
Total Assets	60,000	56,000	56,000

10. Current and Previous

Financial information is presented under two columns, namely, 'Current' and 'Previous'. Information reflected under 'Current' refers to figures for financial year ending between 1 June 2007 and 31 May 2008. Information reflected under 'Previous’ refers to the comparative information presented in the financial statements for the year ending between 1 June 2006 and 31 May 2007.

11. Nationality

'Nationality' refers to the place of incorporation of a company's ultimate holding company.

12. Business Classification and Industry Averages

The business classification of a company is determined in accordance to its principal activity in which it generates the main bulk of its Sales/Turnover and Net Profit.
Industry Averages for Peer groups are calculated by averaging out the Sales/Turnover and Net profit figures for all companies listed under a particular business classification.

13. Percentage (%) Change from Previous

This compares a company's 'Current' against its 'Previous' performance in percentage (%) terms. Percentage change from the previous is not applicable to companies which have experienced a negative to positive growth and vice versa (refer to example 3).

Example 3 - Company's 'Current' against its 'Previous' performance in percentage (%) terms

	Current 2008 ($'000)	Previous 2007 ($'000)	Percentage (%) Change from 2007
Company A	10,000	5,000	100
Company B	10,000	(5,000)	NA
Company C	(10,000)	5,000	NA

14. Qualifications in Audited Financial Reports

Companies included in the Sales/Turnover and Net Profit ranking comprise all companies for which their accounts are audited. Companies included in the rankings other than in Sales/Turnover, Sales/Turnover & related, Net Profit, Net Profit and related categories, comprise companies for which there are no qualifications expressed in the Auditors' Reports.

15. Internationalising SME Recognition

Companies are selected and awarded based on completed survey forms submitted to DP Information Pte Ltd and their audited Sales/Turnover from overseas market. Sales/Turnover from overseas refers to the turnover derived from market(s) outside Singapore.

16. Foreign Currency Translation

All figures reported in foreign currencies are converted to Singapore dollars at their respective average exchange rate for the ranking period. For example, for companies with December 2007 financial year ending, the average exchange rate is computed by adding all the month end exchange rates from January 2007 to December 2007 and then divided by 12 to determine the average exchange rate.