"The Global 500 list of the Financial Times, the 12th annual snapshot of the world's largest companies, shows Exxon Mobil is still the world's most valuable company.This year's list shows oil almost overtaking banking as the most valuable sector in the rankings, with a net fall of 11 banks and five oil companies joining. Americans still dominate but the number of Chinese companies has increased most, from eight to 25, followed by Russia and India. Hungary's MOL did not make it to the top 500.
The companies are ranked by market capitalisation - the greater the stock market value of a company, the higher its ranking. Market cap is the share price, as recorded on March 31 2008, multiplied by the number of shares issued. The figures were converted into a common currency to allow comparison. All the figures in the main FT Global 500 ranking are presented in terms of the dollar at 31 March.
Oil company Exxon Mobil, which retained its leading position, is followed by a newcomer, Exxon's sector peer, Petro China that propelled itself to the second place with USD 424 bn market value.
General Electric slipped one place to the third (USD 369.6 bn), Russian gas giant Gazprom (USD 299.8 bn) stepped forward from the 6th place to the 4th, while China Mobile (USD 298.1 bn) continued to strut forward, coming in 5th, after improving 22 places to 16th in 2007. (Companies are valued on the share classes that are quoted on the stock market. FT has included all companies where the free float - the proportion of shares in market circulation - is at least 15%.)
Regarding the different sectors, the most valuable company in the car industry is Japan's Toyota (USD 172.16 bn), but it slipped quite a lot from last year to the 22nd position from the 7th. The runner-ups are Germany's Volkswagen (USD 101 bn), which on the other hand hit the booster and landed on the 61st place against last year's 147th and Daimler of Germany (USD 87 bn) that is ranked 73rd vs. 79th in 2007.
Among banks, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (USD 277.34 bn) tops the list, followed by HSBC (USD 195.77 bn, 15th on the global ranking) and China Construction Bank (USD 176.47 bn, 20th). The most valuable company is Microsoft (USD 264.13 bn, 7th) in software and computer services, China Life Insurance (USD 109.53 bn, 50th) in life insurance, E.On (USD 123.93 bn, 41st) in gas, water & multiutilities, China Mobile (USD 298.1 bn) in mobile telecoms, AT&T (USD 231.17 bn) in fixed-line telecoms, Nestlé (USD 197.2 bn, 14th) in food and Wal-Mart Stores (USD 210.97 bn) among general retailers.
The newcomers include several companies from China, Russia and Poland.
None of the Hungarian companies made it to the FT Global 500, but oil and gas group MOL is the best positioned local company in the European 500 ranking, having improved 31 places (USD 14.4 bn, 215th). OTP Bank came in 260th with USD 11.5 bn market value and Magyar Telekom is 473rd with USD 5.1 bn.
MOL's Austrian rival, OMV, is 478th on the FT Global 500 (vs. 498th last year), with a market value of USD 19.9 bn. This was enough for the 163rd place on the European 500 list."
Source: Portfolio Online Financial Journal
01.07.2008