A slow return to normal for the fastest-growing public companies based in Orange County gained some speed last year.
The 44 fastest-growing public companies here posted revenue of $44 billion for the 12 months through June, up 42% from the same period two years earlier, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
This year’s increase still adds up to a far cry from the days before effects of the recent recession took full hold—companies on our list in 2008 saw a 93% growth rate, and 2007’s bunch notched a 56% gain.
But the current list is a notable improvement from the last two years, when the force of the recession hit the hardest.
Last year’s list saw a two-year growth rate of about 20% on revenue, and only included 38 companies. In 2009, there were 41 companies that combined for a 30% increase.
The Business Journal typically aims to include 50 companies on its fastest-growing public companies list, but the lingering downturn continues to limit the number of area businesses that meet the list’s criteria.
To make this week’s list, companies had to exceed 10% increases in revenue compared with totals from two years earlier (see criteria, right).
Last year, the cutoff for the list was growth of just over 5%.
This year’s list largely mirrors the growth seen in the Business Journal’s annual fastest-growing private companies list, which came out earlier this month and used the same standards.
Private Comparison
The top 100 private companies in OC saw growth of 40% to $29 billion, compared with 23% a year ago.
Revenue growth hasn’t necessarily led to profits for companies on the public companies list.
Eleven of them, including half of the top 10, reported losses in net income for the 12 months ending in June.
Two companies on the list—Irvine-based Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc. (No. 10 on the list, with 77% revenue growth) and Corinthian Colleges Inc. in Santa Ana (No. 21, 44%)—each posted losses of more than $100 million for the 12 months through June.
On a combined basis, the 44 companies on this week’s list earned about $2.4 billion in profits over the prior year, an average of about $54 million per company.
About $2 billion of those profits came from three of the better-known companies here, all based in Irvine: chipmaker Broadcom Corp. (No. 11); disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. (No. 32); and medical device maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (No. 36).
Those three companies were among seven businesses on this week’s list with annual revenues that top $1 billion (see related story, page 28).
The list also has a fair share of other big and midsize companies with shares trading on major exchanges as well as smaller public ones listed on bulletin board trading services.
Twenty-nine companies on the list trade on Nasdaq, five trade on the New York Stock Exchange, and another 10 trade on smaller exchanges (see story, page 6).
Two companies among the top 10 on this week’s list are traded on the over-the-counter Bulletin Board. The No. 1 company on this year’s list, San Juan Capistrano-based Seychelle Environmental Technologies Inc., is traded on the Pink Sheets (see story, page 1).
Seychelle, a maker of portable water filtration systems and portable products such as bottles and canteens, had about $5 million in revenue, an increase of about 290% from two years earlier. It’s sold more than 4 million filters since starting in 1998, according to the company.
Seychelle was one of four companies that made the top 10 as new arrivals to this year’s list.
Seychelle also is the first non-healthcare or medical device-related company to top the fastest-growing list since 2006, when Newport Beach patent licensing company Acacia Research Corp. was No. 1.
Acacia, which has taken a leading role in the growing business for patent licensing, particularly among technology companies, had about $36 million in revenue when it topped the 2006 list, and hasn’t showed signs of slowing down since then.
This year, the company saw about $178 million in revenue for a growth rate of nearly 200%, good for the No. 5 spot on the list.
The No. 1 company on each of the prior two years’ lists, Tustin-based Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc., failed to make this year’s list. So did the No. 2 company on last year’s list, Lake Forest-based wireless software maker Comarco Inc.
Peregrine, which is working on getting regulatory approvals for drugs that are undergoing clinical trials, saw a slowdown in the rate of growth for its contract manufacturing business line.
Comarco, a maker of power adapters for a variety of consumer electronics, saw a steep drop in revenues after a distribution agreement it had with Anaheim-based laptop bag maker Targus Inc. ended.
23,000 Jobs Here
Companies on this week’s list employ about 23,000 people in Orange County, up about 11% from a year earlier.
They employ about 210,000 overall, up about 18% from a year ago.
About 14,000 of the new jobs based outside OC came with Santa Ana circuit board maker TTM Technologies Inc.’s 2010 acquisition of Hong Kong-based Meadville Holdings Ltd. for $521 million.
TTM moved from the No. 36 spot a year ago to No. 7 on this week’s list, thanks to a nearly 130% increase in revenue growth due in large part to the Meadville acquisition.
Download the 2011 OC’s FASTEST-GROWING PUBLIC COs list (pdf)
About This Week’s Fastest-Growing Companies List
The fastest-growing public companies list starts on page 32 and includes OC-based businesses that have been trading on U.S.-based exchanges at least since 2009.
Companies had to have sales of at least $300,000 for the 12 months through June 2009 to be considered.
This year’s list required companies to show at least 10% growth in revenue for the 12 months through June of this year compared to the same period two years ago.
The measurement skips a middle 12-month period through June 2010, in part to reflect the staying power of companies on the list. The companies on this year’s list, for example, all had to come through the recent recession to post impressive gains.
The Business Journal compiled the financial data for this list from regulatory filings and other sources, with help from Los Angeles-based investment bank B. Riley & Co.
Questions on the list can be directed to Business Journal Research Director Emily Weisburg. She can be reached at (949) 833-8373, ext. 224, or by email at weisburg@ocbj.com.
—Mark Mueller
