Australia's best performing companies, or those with the best return on shareholder funds (ROSF) after tax, have a few things in common, according to analysis by Phil Ruthven, the founder of IBISWorld.

Ruthven decided to look at all large enterprises in Australia, not just the home grown or ASX-listed ones, over five years to 2015.

The most common characteristic of these successful companies is that they are focused on just one industry and not spread across sectors, IBISWorld founder Phil Ruthven says. Credit:Bloomberg

He took out those with thin capitalisation, or those where equity was less than 5 per cent and the rest debt.

He ended up with 1467 companies, representing about 38 per cent of Australia's $4.8 trillion revenue in 2015. The 1155 companies running at a profit had a ROSF of 15 per cent.