Forbes `Global 2000’ features 56 large Indian companies

27 May 2016

The 2016 Forbes 'Global 2000' list of world's largest and most powerful companies features 56 Indian companies, with Reliance Industries leads the pack while has the most number of 596 major companies.

US and China-based companies dominate the top 10 of the 2016 Forbes 'Global 2000'  list, with only Japan's Toyota Motor at the 10 – giving a snapshot of the current global business landscape.

India's tally of 56 remains unchanged from the previous year's list of the world's biggest companies, with Reliance Industries maintaining its top position of leading the largest public companies in India.

Reliance, however, improved its ranking this year to 121 from 142 last year, with a market value of $50.6 billion and assets worth $91.5 billion.

Reliance is followed by State Bank of India at 149 and a market value of $23.3 billion.

The other Indian companies in the list are Oil and Natural Gas ranked (220), ICICI Bank (266), HDFC Bank (275), Indian Oil (371), Tata Consultancy Services (385), NTPC (400), Bharti Airtel (453), Coal India (465), Axis Bank (484), Larsen and Toubro (505), Infosys (590), Bharat Petroleum (650), Wipro (755), ITC (781), Kotak Mahindra Bank (899), Mahindra and Mahindra (901), HCL Technologies (943), Tata Steel (1,178) and Adani Enterprises (1,993).

Chinese banks: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China - held onto their leading positions, despite a slowing Chinese economy that hurt profits and knocked peer Bank of China from fourth place to sixth, Forbes said.

The 2016 list features public companies from 63 countries that together account for $35 trillion in revenue, $2.4 trillion in profit, $162 trillion of assets, and a combined market value of $44 trillion.

Overall, 586 US companies make the list, against 249 from China (mainland and Hong Kong), 219 from Japan, 92 from the United Kingdom and 67 from South Korea.

The biggest public companies in the US include Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, which gained one spot to fourth overall in 2016, technology giant Apple ranked 8th, Bank of America (11), Wal Mart (15), Microsoft (23), IBM (41) and Goldman Sachs (77).

US companies accounted for a combined $11.6 trillion in revenue, down 3 per cent from last year, and $891 billion in profit, down 13 per cent. Facebook climbed 92 spots to 188th on the overall list, while Amazon jumped 222 spots to 236th place.