1. Companies used for the Businessuite 50 and 100 are publically listed on one or a combination of the following exchanges: Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
2. For the main Businessuite Top 50 and 100 Rankings, the companies are ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal years in US$.
3. Percent change calculations for revenue, net income, and earnings per share are based on data as originally reported. They are not restated for mergers, acquisitions, or accounting changes.
4. The only changes to the prior years’ data are for significant restatement due to reporting errors that require a company to file amended reports.
5. Revenues are as reported, including revenues from discontinued operations when published. If a spinoff is on the list, it has not been included in discontinued operations.
6. Revenues for commercial banks and savings institutions are interest and noninterest revenues.
7. Revenues for insurance companies include premium and annuity income, investment income, and capital gains or losses but exclude deposits.
8. Revenues figures for all companies include consolidated subsidiaries and exclude excise taxes.
9. Data shown are for the fiscal year ended on or before December. 31, 2017/2018. Unless otherwise noted, all figures are for the year ended Dec. 31, 2017/18.
10. Profits are shown after taxes, extraordinary credits or charges, cumulative effects of accounting changes, and non-controlling interests (including subsidiary preferred dividends).
11. Figures in parentheses indicate a loss. Profit declines of more than 100% reflect swings from 2018 profits to 2017 losses.
12. Balance Sheet Assets are the company’s year-end total.
13. Total stockholders’ equity is the sum of all capital stock, paid-in capital, and retained earnings at the company’s year-end. Excluded is equity attributable to non-controlling interests. Also excluded is redeemable preferred stock whose redemption is either mandatory or outside the company’s control.
Dividends paid on such stock have been subtracted from the profit figures used in calculating return on equity.
14. Earnings Per Share The figure shown for each company is the diluted earnings-per-share figure that appears on the income statement. Per-share earnings are adjusted for stock splits and stock dividends. Though earnings-per-share numbers are not marked by footnotes, if a company’s profits are footnoted it can be assumed that earnings per share is affected as well.
15. The five-year earnings-growth rates are the annual rates, compounded.
16. Total Return to Investors includes both price appreciation and dividend yield to an investor in the company’s common stock. The figures shown assume sales at the end of 2013 of stock owned at the end of 2012. It has been assumed that any proceeds from cash dividends and stock received in spinoffs were reinvested when they were paid.
17. Returns are adjusted for stock splits, stock dividends, recapitalizations, and corporate reorganizations as they occurred; however, no effort has been made to reflect the cost of brokerage commissions or of taxes.
18. Total-return percentages shown are the returns received by the hypothetical investor described above.
19. The five-year returns are the annual rates, compounded.
20. Medians: No attempt has been made to calculate median figures in the tables for groups of fewer than four companies. The medians for profit changes from 2016/17 to 2017/18 do not include companies that lost money in 2012 or lost money in both 2012 and 2013, because no meaningful percentage changes can be calculated in such cases.
21. Market Capitalization (on December 31, 2017/18) is the total value of the issued shares of the company; i.e. the yearend share price times the number of shares outstanding.