Top Global Companies 2005

Forbes's annual survey of world's Biggest 2000 Companies for the year 2005 was an interesting one. The selected public listed companies represented about 60 countries all over the world. The methodology uses a top composite score based on the companies ranking on sale, profits, assets and market value. These companies account for USD30T in revenue, USD2.4 T in profits, USD119T in assets and USD39T in market value. They also employ 72 m people in total.

Curiously, which are these big corporations ?

Top 10 Global Companies

1) HSBC (bank)

2) General Electric (conglomerate)

3) Bank of America (bank)

4) JP Morgan Chase (bank)

5) Exxon Mobil (o&g)

6) Royal Dutch Shell (o&g)

7) BP (o&g)

8) Toyota (motor)

9) ING (insurance)

10) Berkshire Hathaway (diversified financial), Royal Bank of Scotland (bank)

Top in Sales

1) Walmart (USD379B)

2) Exxon Mobil (USD359B)

3) Royal Dutch Shell

4) BP

5) Chevron

Top in Profits

1) Exxon Mobil (USD40.6B)

2) Royal Dutch Shell (USD31B)

3) Gazprom

4) General Electric

5) BP

Top in Assets

1) Royal Bank of Scotland (USD3,808B)

2) BNP Paribas (USD2,494B)

3) Barclays

4) HSBC

5) CITI

Top in Market Value

1) Petro China (USD546B)

2) Exxon Mobil (USD465B)

3) General Electric

4) China Mobile

5) Gazprom

How about the Asian companies? Below are the top 5 Asian companies sorted by country and world ranking?

Japan: 12 Toyota, 40 Mitsubishi UFJ, 58 Nippon Telegraph, 59 Mizuho Financial, 65 Sumitomo Mitsui Financial

China: 41 PetroChina, 53 ICBC, 69 CCB, 71 Sinopec China Petroleum, 81 Bank of China

South Korea: 63 Samsung, 182 Kookmin Bank, 188 Korea Electric Power, 213 Hyundai Motor, 218 POSCO

HK: 89 China Mobile, 176 Hutchinson Wampoa, 395 CNOOC, 401 China Netcom, 430 BOC

Taiwan: 310 Taiwan Semiconductor, 3410 Hon Hai Percision, 389 Cathay Financial, 437 Formosa PetroChemical, 576 ChungHwa Telekom

Singapore: 358 DBS, 360 Singapore Telecom, 370 UOB, 478 OCBC, 615 Singapore Airlines

India: 239 Oil & Natural Gas, 258 Reliance Industries, 326 State Bank of India, 399 Indian Oil, 494 NTPC

Malaysia: 663 Maybank, 681 Tenaga, 844 Telekom, 868 BumiCommerce, 903 Public Bank

Thailand: 354, PTT Public Co, 863 Siam Cement, 933 Bangkok Bank, 1181 Kasilkorn Bank, 1214 Krung-Thai Bank

Indonesia: 835 Telekom Indonesia, 1149 Bank Central Asia, 1202 Bank Rakyat, 1425 Bank Mandiri

Philipines: 1321 PLDT Telecom

* The picture above is the HSBC building in HK. Incorporated in HK in 1865 and head quartered in the UK, the banks shareholders' funds was 9.1M pound in 1918. It was set up primarily for HK's bustling trade in tea, silk and opium. HSBC's shares is about HKD132 per share and is listed in 3 continents-countries -HK, UK and US. There is a plan to list the bank in Shanghai soon.