Inside the issue: The Next 500

The Fortune India Next 500, in its sixth year, continues to be of its kind listing of India’s largest midsize companies. Like 2019, this year’s list also showed three-digit churn. But 119 new companies in 2020, haven’t broke the 2019 record of 163 new companies.

However, the list which is built on the basis of audited annual reports of FY19, showed some improvements. One, the cumulative revenues of the Next 500 companies grew by a respectable 10.77% - much better than 1.45% decline seen last year.

Two, while the midsize universe continues to be under stress, the cumulative decline in profit of close to 36% is still better than last year’s record decline of 65%. Like the previous year, leverages the key reason for the decline in the overall profits of the Next 500 companies in 2020.

Beat this: out of the 500 companies, 427 companies posted a cumulative profit of ₹41,116 crore, but 73 loss-making companies together posted a cumulative loss of ₹37,535 crore. This year’s list has 12 companies with net loss of over ₹1,000 crore, which account for 77.8% of the 73 loss-makers’ cumulative losses.

Amidst the gloom, good news is that total equity dividend of the Next 500 companies grew by 113% this year, compared to a decline of over 32% in 2019. Also, employees of the Next 500 companies have their own share of good news, as employee costs grew 16.29% in 2020, compared to a paltry 0.42% growth noted in 2019.

Catch a sneak peek into our Fortune India Next 500 quarterly special with associate editor & editors (lists) Rajiv Bhuva and digital editor Arnika Thakur.

Find the full list here.