Forbes evaluates the global enterprise list: ICBC ranks No. 1 Apple 15

Forbes evaluates the global enterprise list: ICBC ranks No. 1 Apple 15 The world is a huge market. This year, companies from 63 countries are listed on Forbes Global Enterprise 2...

This year, the world's largest 2,000 companies have total revenue of US$38 trillion (up 6%), total profits of US$2.43 trillion (down 7%), total assets of US$159 trillion (up 7%), total market value of US$39 trillion (up 7%), and a total of 87 million employees. Except for profits, several other indicators have increased compared with last year.

This year’s top 2000 list once again reflects the dynamic changes in global business. The list covers 63 countries, 3 fewer than last year. The United States (543 companies on the list) added 19 new companies to the list, reversing the trend of decreasing companies on the list since 2004. It was also the year when the number of companies on the list was the largest since 2009. Japan (251 companies on the list) once again ranks second, but the number of companies on the list has decreased by 7 compared with last year. Mainland China (136 companies on the list) ranked third, and the number of companies on the list was the same as last year. This is also the first time since we released the first Global 2000 list in 2004 that the number of Chinese companies on the list has not increased. Eleven countries have just one company on the list, including New Zealand, the Czech Republic and Vietnam.

The countries with outstanding performance in all four indicators are: Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Belgium, Türkiye and the United Arab Emirates have the honor of having the largest increase in corporate market value. These three countries all experienced double-digit increases compared with last year. Spain and Greece have recently been plunged into economic crisis, which has also hit corporate profits in both countries, with both countries experiencing overall declines. You could also include Italy in this category, where companies have declined in all four indicators this year.

This is the tenth year that we have released the list of the top 2000 global companies. This year, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China surpassed Exxon Mobil to become the world's largest company, ascending to the throne of global Big Brother for the first time. Another bank from China, China Construction Bank, rose 11 places in the ranking and jumped to the second position. Both companies' rapid rise on our list was driven by double-digit sales and profit growth in 2012. Although both banks' profits are still growing, 2012 was their slowest annual growth rate since going public. Most analysts do not expect a banking crisis in China, but increasing defaults and shrinking loan-generating capacity are a serious threat to the Chinese banking system. JPMorgan Chase, which won the title of the world's largest company in 2011, dropped to third place this year due to a slight decline in sales. General Electric also fell one spot, from third last year to fourth this year. The fifth-ranked company this year is Exxon Mobil, last year's number one. Despite being the world's most profitable company for the second year in a row, the oil and gas giant was forced to relinquish the No. 1 spot after just a year.

Apple (tied for 15th) remains the world's most valuable company, even though its market value has shrunk by 24% since March last year. Walmart (ranked tied for 15th) regained the title of the world's largest company by sales from Royal Dutch Shell with a 5% sales increase. Germany's Allianz, South Korea's Samsung Electronics and the United States' AT&T broke into the top 25 this year. Among them, Allianz's ranking jumped the fastest, rising from 50th last year to 25th this year.

If you're wondering which companies on this year's list have risen the fastest, top of the list is Germany's E.ON (ranked 99 this year, 409 last year); the company returned to profitability in 2012 thanks to a number of factors, including successful renegotiations of gas supply contracts with the governments of Russia and Norway, the absence of previous negative one-time events, and the German government's decision to phase out the use of nuclear power. The US's ES Pharmacy Benefit Management (Express Scripts, ranked 170th, ranked 381st last year) jumped 211 places, mainly due to its US$29.1 billion acquisition of competitor Medco Health Solutions. The Japanese beverage company Kirin Holdings (ranked 467th, ranked 733rd last year) has seen a significant increase in profits, and its market value has increased by 31%.

As for the companies with the biggest declines in rankings, they fell in all four indicators. A year after buying British software company Autonomy for $11.1 billion, US PC giant HP (ranked 438th, down from 67th last year) took an $8.8 billion write-down on the disastrous deal. Mining giant Rio Tinto (ranked 435th, down from 69th last year) posted a net loss last year due to trading losses of up to US$14 billion, mainly related to the company's aluminum business and coal assets in Mozambique. Another company that has fallen sharply in the rankings is Brazilian energy giant Eletrobra (ranked 935th, compared with 320th last year), which posted a net loss in 2012 due to government orders to reduce electricity rates.

There are 162 new companies on the list this year. The largest ones are either publicly listed shortly, or are new companies formed by spinning off large pieces of business from the parent company, and then listed together with the parent company. Phillips 66 (No. 130) was spun off from ConocoPhillips (No. 73) last May. Abbott Life (AbbVie, ranked 257th) was originally the pharmaceutical branch of Abbott Labs (ranked 123rd) focusing on research and development. In January this year, the two companies officially separated, and the former went public as an independent company. As of press time, Abbott Laboratories has not released its data as an independent company in 2012, so its sales, profit and asset data and rankings are based on consolidated data before the spin-off. North American grocery company Kraft Foods Group (No. 360) was spun off from Mondelez International (No. 182) last October. The People's Insurance Company of China (ranked 226th) went public in November 2012, raising US$3.1 billion. German insurance company Talanx, the main owner of Hannover Re, first announced in mid-September 2012 that it was shelving its IPO plans, but then launched a $602 million initial public offering in October.

Banks and diversified financial companies still dominate this list, with a total of 469 (a decrease of 9 from last year) such companies on the list, largely due to their sales and total assets. The next three largest industries are oil and gas (124 companies), raw materials (122 companies) and insurance (109 companies). Last year, the leading industries in terms of growth in various indicators were: healthcare companies, mainly service companies, led in sales (up 15%); household products and service companies took the lead in profits (up 22%); semiconductor companies had the advantage in asset growth (up 24%); media companies benefited from the promotion of broadcasting and cable TV companies and led in market value growth (up 20%). The raw materials industry, including metallurgical and mining companies, lagged behind all other industries: profits fell by 55% and market value fell by 19%.

In terms of regional division of the list, we divide it into four regions: first is the Asia-Pacific region (715 companies on the list), followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa (606 companies), followed by the United States (543 companies) and the Americas (143 companies) except the United States. Only the United States posted year-over-year increases in all four indicators. The leading Asia-Pacific region has the title of having the most companies on the list for the sixth consecutive year, and it also ranks first in sales growth (8%) and asset growth (15%). The United States leads in terms of profit growth (4%) and market value growth (11%). The total profits of the companies on the list in the United States are US$876 billion, and the total market value is US$14.8 trillion. American companies are the most profitable and have the highest market capitalization among the four major regions. The Europe, Middle East and Africa region delivered the highest sales (a total of US$13.3 trillion) and the highest assets (US$64 trillion).