Companies operating with wide margins

Then there are companies that operate with such a high share of industry profits that their nearest competitors end up playing nothing more than second fiddle to them.

Switzerland-headquartered dyes and pigments manufacturer Clariant Chemicals gulps away 74 per cent profits of the organised industry. Its closest competitor Bodal Chemicals takes only 7 per cent of industry profits.

Asian Paints rules the organised paint industry and has done so for many years now. There has been a slew of international paint manufacturers that have tried their luck in the country but none has been able to shake off Asian Paints' hold in the industry. The company takes away 66 per cent of industry profits, while the closest competitor, Kansai Nerolac, has to contend with only 7 per cent.

The oil-exploration giant ONGC drills 70 per cent of all exploration profits in the country. Cairn India, its closest competitor, gets only 18 per cent of the profits.

In the refinery business, ad-hoc subsidy policies of successive governments, which have resulted in losses for the state-run refiners, have allowed Reliance Industries to corner 65 per cent of all sector profits to itself. Beleaguered state refiner BPCL gets only 14 per cent of industry profits.

In the engineering space, there is really no competition to L&T, whose scale and size ensure that it takes 72 per cent of the sector profits.

In the household and personal products space, HUL shows who the king is. Its control over the Indian demography is so complete that it cleans up 50 per cent of the entire industry profits.

Similarly, Bata India, the largest shoe retailer in the country, despite going in and out of fashion, still jogs away with 42 per cent of the organised footwear profits in a sector that is populated with unlisted and unorganised sector players.

CRISIL rules the ratings business, with 57 per cent of industry profits, while the closest competitor CARE corners 28 per cent of the industry profits.

In the technology space, TCS, the country's largest software company, takes away one-third of sector profits alone while the erstwhile market favourite Infosys still controls 21 per cent of the industry profits.

Banking industry behemoth State Bank of India counts away 42 per cent of all public-sector bank profits. Its closest competitor, Bank of Baroda, has to be content with only 9 per cent of industry profits.

Sun Pharma shows it is the boss in the domestic pharma space. Despite integration issues with Ranbaxy, Sun corners 22 per cent of the organised pharma sector profits in the country.

Here are some more companies that operate with a wide margin of industry profit share.