Super-growth firms? Armenia beats India

Amid domestic firms' growing appetite for merger and acquisitions and a robust economic expansion, India has surprisingly lost its place as the world's second largest home to 'super growth' companies to a relatively unknown Armenia.

According to a new study released on Friday by global consultancy major Grant Thornton, there was a huge 56 per cent plunge in the number of super growth companies in India. These are the companies with significant above-average growth in areas like turnover and employment.

While the US has retained its top position on Grant Thornton International's Super Growth Index for third year in a row, India suffered a dramatic drop to 14th position as the country's proportion of super growth companies halved from 34 per cent to 15 per cent.

India has been replaced by a newcomer Armenia at the second position with 38 per cent proportion of super growth companies there, as against 44 per cent in the US.

The other top five countries in the league include Ireland (third), the UK (fourth) and South Africa (fifth), all of which have improved their rankings.

Other major climbers on the index include Russia, Philippines, Argentina and Italy.

However, Hong Kong -- another strong performer in 2006 at third place, has also dropped out of the top ten list to 11th position this year. Other major losers in the chart include Malaysia and New Zealand.