Financial services take center stage - Washington Business Journal:

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From commercial, education and mortgage lending to privates equity andventure capital, local financial firms are among the fastest-growingf companies on the Washington Businessz Journal's list of the region's 100 bigges t public companies. It all startsw at the top. leadd this year's list, generating 2006 revenue of slightly morethan $43 Not long ago, the mortgage financer giant was embroiled in an accounting scandal that causexd it to restate about $5 billiobn in earnings from 2000 to 2002. Becaus of resulting delays in itsfinancial reporting, the McLean-basedx company didn't qualify for the Washington Businessw Journal's list of the top 100 publicf companies last year.
Freddie Mac's reclaiming of its No. 1 positiom reflects what economists view as a burgeoning economic catalyst forthe "Most Americans believe Freddie Mac, , and otherxs are still agencies of says regional economist Anirban Basu. "They are largr enough to be government agencies, but they are private-sector I think this reminds us of how importanr finance has become to the economuy of theWashington area." To put thingsx into perspective, at the beginning of the decadse about a half-dozen businesses involved in financial service s were on the Business Journal's list, collectively generating abou t $41 billion in annual revenue for 1999.
This finance, investment and banking companies reportedabout $70 billion in combined revenue in 2006. This despite the fact that Freddiew Mac's cousin, D.C.-based mortgage finance compantyFannie Mae, is not on this year's list because it is stilp tardy with its financial reporting. The revenue growt among finance companies on thethis year's when compared with 1999, is impressive. Freddie Mac's for one, soared from $3.3 billionm to $43 billion over the past seven During thesame stretch, Reston-based Sallied Mae saw its revenue climv from about $3 billion to nearly $9 billion.
McLean-baserd , which has expanded from its core credift card businessto banking, reported revenue of more than $15 billio n last year, up from $2.6 billion in 1999. Arlington-based jumped from revenuw of $123 million to about $1 billion in the same time Several companies, such as Bethesda-based and Arlington-basede , weren't even on the list seven years ago. "Financee has become a bread-and-butter in the Washington area, says Basu, who is chairmanh and CEO of SagePolicy Group, a Baltimore-based economicf and policy consulting firm. Chevy Chase-based , a commercialk lending and investment company, moved up 12 spots, supportes by an 84 percent revenue gain from ayear ago.
Americajn Capital Strategies rose10 spots, as its revenue jumped 55 percent. The Bethesdq investment business commits capital to companies in a varietytof industries, and this diversity has supportecd American Capital's strong performance. "Aq flood of money has been out saysWachovia Corp. senior economist Mark Vitner. Biotech, healtj care, telecommunications and hospitality companies joined stalwarts in the defensd and real estate sectors to round out most of the rest of thetop 100. Apartf from finance, perhaps the biggest buzz in the locakl economy over the past few years surrounds biotech andhealth care.
The concentration of drug and diagnosticd companies, particularly along the Interstate 270 corridor inMontgomerty County, has helped fuel growth in the region's economgy as a handful of companies have brought products to markeft that generate hundreds of millions of dollars in "It's the payoff of havinfg clusters" of companies concentrated in one part of the Vitner says. Two of the most profitable biotech companiexs in theWashington area, Silver Spring-base and Gaithersburg-based , are among the biggest moverd up the list from a year ago. United Therapeutica sells a drug for pulmonary arterial hypertension that hasdone well.
Digende sells a test for detecting a viru s that is the main cause ofcervicao cancer. A Dutch company recently agreed to buy Digenrefor $1.6 billion, part of a trenfd of international companies scooping up local biotechs. Health care servicesw is anotherhot space, as the baby boomerd population starts to retire, the cost of medicin e goes up and more people find themselves withouyt insurance. Rockville-based , a pharmacy benefit management company, showed 2006 revenue 83 percent higher than theprevioue year. HealthExtras has made severak acquisitions of late and has also grown throughcontracr wins.
Leading the telecom sector, Reston-base d is the list's runner-up for the seconed straight year. Although its revenue grew to $41 billion from nearlyu $29 billion, the number of employees afte r the 2005 merger with Nextel droppedfrom 79,900 to Two of the biggest moversz in telecommunications experienced strong revenud growth. D.C.-based , which is awaiting federal approval to merge withNew York-basedc , climbed 10 places on 67 perceng revenue growth.