NEW YORK, 31 March 2007 — A growing number of Chinese firms are now among the leading global corporations, said a Forbes magazine report Thursday that places US banking giant Citigroup in the top spot.
Citigroup heads the Forbes list of 2,000 global public companies, ranked on a formula of sales, profits, assets and stock-market value. 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 number-two in the global rankings, following by British banking group HSBC, US-based conglomerate General Electric, US banking firm J.P. Morgan 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. The rankings differ from other lists based on stock market value, sales or profits.
US retailer Wal-Mart Stores had the highest sales — $348 billion — but was ranked 17th on the Forbes list. Seventh-ranked ExxonMobil had the biggest profit at $39.5 billion and the highest stock market value at $410 billion.
Even with fewer US names on this year’s list, the remaining US companies had a combined market capitalization of $13.9 trillion, Forbes said. Forbes said the total revenues of the companies headquartered in Switzerland exceeded the country’s gross domestic product.