US retail giant Wal-Mart tops 2010 Fortune 500 global list
12 Jul 2010
Wal-Mart Stores has overtaken Royal Dutch Shell to top the 2010 Fortune 500 global list, revealing that the world's worst recession failed to bog down the world's largest retailer. Among the top five were oil giants Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and BP and car maker Toyota.
Despite the global recession, Wal-Mart was able to pull consumers last year, but analysts speculate 2010 may not be easy for the retail giant as the US, which accounts for 75 per cent of Wal-Mart sales, is battling with high unemployment and gas prices.
The Fortune 500 global list based on the total global sales figures of companies, ranked Wal-Mart Stores at No 1, which had 2009 revenues of $408.21 billion followed by Royal Dutch Shell with $285.12 billion, Exxon Mobil with $284.65 billion, BP with $246 billion and the world's largest carmaker Toyota Motors with $204 billion.
Oil and Gas companies continued with their near monopoly in the Fortune list as 5 energy companies are ranked in the top 10, but the global recession and skyrocketing crude prices ripped off their revenues last year to see their numbers on the top 10 list fall from 7 in 2009 and 6 in 2008.
The list also features Japan Post Holdings at No 6 followed by Asia's largest crude refiner, Chinese state owned oil major Sinopec at 7, China's largest electric power transmission and distribution company State Grid at 8, French global insurance group AXA at 9 and China National Petroleum at 10.
US dominance in the top 10 showed a decline with only two American companies making it to the top 10 list compared to 4 in 2009 and 5 in 2008, while China's growing influence as a economic giant is reflected with three Chinese companies in the top 10 list in 2010 compared to one in 2009 and none in 2008.
| 2010 Rank | 2009 Rank | Company | Country | Revenues (in billions) |
| 1 | 3 | Wal-Mart Stores | US | $408.21 |
| 2 | 1 | Royal Dutch Shell | Netherlands | $285.12 |
| 3 | 2 | Exxon Mobil | US | $284.65 |
| 4 | 4 | BP | UK | $246.1 |
| 5 | 10 | Toyota Motors | Japan | $204.1 |
| 6 | 11 | Japan Post Holdings | Japan | $202.1 |
| 7 | 9 | Sinopec | China | $187.5 |
| 8 | 15 | State Grid | China | $184.4 |
| 9 | 73 | AXA | France | $175.2 |
| 10 | 13 | CNPC | China | $165.4 |
Eight Indian companies featured in the 2010 Fortune 500 global list with five being state-owned firms of which, four were in the oil and gas sector while one in banking. The three private sector firms were Reliance Industries (RIL), Tata Steel and Tata Motors.
Tata Motors, despite having to face the ravages of the recession at its UK operations last year, entered the list for the first time this year and made it along with RIL in Fortune 50 fast growing companies. (See: Eight Indian companies in 2010 Fortune 500 global list)
Although IT giants like Infosys and Wipro have emerged as true global players but it could be still some time before they make it to the elite Fortune 500 list.
| 2010 Rank | 2009 Rank | Company | Revenues (in billions) |
| 1 | 125 | Indian Oil | $54.28 |
| 2 | 175 | Reliance Industries | $41.0 |
| 3 | 282 | State Bank of India | $28.2 |
| 4 | 307 | Bharat Petroleum | $26.5 |
| 5 | 354 | Hindustan Petroleum | $23.8 |
| 6 | 410 | Tata Steel | $21.58 |
| 7 | 413 | ONGC | $21.44 |
| 8 | 442 | Tata Motors | $19.50 |
The US had the highest number of companies in the Fortune Global 500 list this year with 139, followed by Japan with 71, China 46, France 39, Germany 37, Britain 29, Switzerland 15, Canada and Italy 11 each and Spain and South Korea 10 each.
Of the emerging nations China, the world's third-largest economy after the US and Japan, had a record 46 companies on the Fortune Global 500 list this year, of which, three made it to the top 10. However most of the Chinese companies were state owned corporations.
India had eight, Brazil seven and Russia six.
But in the Fortune Global 500 most profitable companies was Russian oil and gas giant, Gazprom followed by the US oil giant Exxon Mobil, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, British oil major BP and China Construction Bank among the top five.
Among the technological giants that are watched with keen interest globally are HP, which is ranked at 27, IBM 48, Microsoft 115, Dell 131, Apple 197, Cisco Systems 200, Sun Microsystems at 204 and Intel at 209.
Internet giant, Google is ranked 102, while rival Yahoo at a distant 343.
The US government bailed out private sector companies like Vikram Pandit's Citigroup is ranked at No 33, General Motors at 38, AIG at 41 and GMAC at 447.
The oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway is ranked at 28, PepsiCo at 171, arch rival Coca Cola at 245, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp at 255 and the world's largest steel maker ArcelorMittal at 99.
On this year's Fortune Global 500 list, there are 12 companies run by women, compared to 13 last year.
Among the first five on the list are Patricia Woertz, chief of Archer Daniels Midland, a US-based producer of the corn-based fuel, Angela Braly, head of health care company WellPoint, Indian born Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Irene Rosenfeld, the chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods, who became a globally known figure for her aggressive pursuit to acquire UK's Cadbury and Lynn Elsenhans, the chief of Sunoco, the first woman to run a US oil company.