The Forbes magazine list of 200 "best under a billion" top-performing companies in Asia – those worth under $US1 billion – includes one New Zealand company and 13 from Australia.

Indonesia and Vietnam were the only other countries to have only one company listed.

The single company on this side of the Tasman is the NZX, New Zealand's listed stock exchange, which will next month launch a diversification into derivatives, starting with cash-settled contracts on the price of whole milkpowder traded internationally by Fonterra.

The NZX was listed by Forbes as having sales of $US31 million, net income of $US28 million and a market value of $US121 million.

Australia – which had 18 companies named by Forbes last year – this time had a range of companies, including Queensland based coal miner New Hope, which turned over $US446 million in sales over the past three years.

Education services provider Navitas also made the list, touching $US469 million in sales, as did online travel booking service Wotif.com.

China made the biggest contribution to the list with 71 companies named, down from 78 the year before.

The annual Best Under a Billion list picks the top-performing 200 firms from almost 13,000 public listed Asia-Pacific companies with actively traded shares and sales between $US5 million and $US1 billion.

Selection of the final 200 was based on earnings growth, sales growth, and shareholders return on equity in the past 12 months and over three years.