Citigroup tops Forbes list of global companies

It leads among top 2,000 firms; more China firms making their presence felt


NEW YORK - A GROWING number of Chinese firms are now among the top 2,000 global corporations, said a Forbes magazine report that placed American banking giant Citigroup in the top spot.

To find the world's biggest companies, Forbes said it used four measures - sales, market value, assets and profits - rather than a single yardstick, like sales, which would have produced a 'lopsided list', cluttered with retailers.

Forbes described its ranking of 'Global High Performers' as an 'elite list of fast-growing big companies that set the pace for their respective industries'.

The list now has 80 companies based in Hong Kong or China, including 16 additions from last year, while the United States has 34 fewer companies compared with last year's rankings.

US-based Bank of America was second in the global rankings, followed by British banking group HSBC, US-

based conglomerate General Electric, US banking firm JPMorgan Chase and insurance giant American International Group.

ExxonMobil, the US oil giant, was ranked seventh, followed by Royal Dutch Shell, Swiss-based UBS and Dutch-based bank ING.

American retailer Wal-

Mart Stores had the highest sales - US$348 billion (S$528.2 billion) - but was ranked 17th on the Forbes list. ExxonMobil had the biggest profit of US$39.5 billion and the highest stock market value of US$410 billion.

But the prize for the most improved company had to go to 45th-ranked China Life Insurance, whose market value of US$110 billion this year enjoyed the biggest jump - 261 per cent - from the previous year.

China's top-ranked firm was PetroChina, placed 41st on the list. Toyota, at number 12, was the highest-ranked Japanese firm.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), ranked 239, leading a pack of 34 Indian companies on the list. Others included Reliance Industries (258), State Bank of India (326), Indian Oil (399) and Tata Consultancy (1047).

Even with fewer US names on this year's list, the remaining US companies had a combined market capitalisation of US$13.89 trillion compared with US$3.38 trillion for Japan and US$1.36 trillion for China.

These numbers show how far emerging economies such as China have progressed - and how much they still have to accomplish.

The 2,000 companies saw sales rise 10 per cent last year, with profits increasing 32 per cent and market value gaining 17 per cent, according to the magazine.

The 116 oil companies had the biggest revenues of any sector but the biggest profits were in banking, it added.