Special Report
The World's Biggest Companies
Edited by Scott DeCarlo and Brian Zajac 04.02.08, 6:00 PM ET
One world; one gigantic marketplace. This year, 60 countries have
global 2000 entries vs. 51 in our inaugural list in 2004. The Forbes
global 2000 are public companies with the top composite scores based on
their rankings for sales, profits, assets and market value. Our
justification for using a composite ranking is simple: One metric alone
can give a false impression about corporate size.
In total, the global 2000 companies now account for $30 trillion in
revenues, $2.4 trillion in profits, $119 trillion in assets and $39
trillion in market value. Around the world, 72 million people work for
these companies.
The U.S. still dominates this list of global giants, but with 61
fewer entries than last year and 153 fewer than in 2004, as many U.S.
companies failed to keep pace with global competitors. In contrast,
China, India and Brazil are rapidly adding companies to the list.
India, for example, has 48 companies this year vs. 27 in 2004.
Measured by number of companies, 315, the banking industry has the
biggest presence on the global 2000. Banking also dominates in assets,
with total assets of $58.3 trillion, and profits, $398 billion. The 123
companies in oil and gas operations lead all industries in aggregate
revenues, of $3.76 trillion, and take second place in total profits, of
$386 billion.
For the past few years, we have also identified an important subset
of the global 2000: big companies that also have exceptional growth
rates. To qualify as a global high performer, a company must stand out
from its industry peers in growth, return to investors and future
prospects. Most of the 130 global high performers have been expanding
their earnings at 25% a year or better--easy for a start-up, hard for a
blue chip.
One such exceptional company is HSBC Holdings (nyse: HBC - news - people ), which not only leads this year's global 2000 in size--by moving past Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ),
which we now rank 24--but also is one of five global high performers in
the banking industry. HSBC has delivered 26% annual average growth in
revenue and 31% in net income over the past five years--results that
seem more suited to a growing regional bank than one operating in 83
countries with 10,000 offices and $2.3 trillion in assets.
Our tables on global high performers include international brand names such as McDonald's (nyse: MCD - news - people ), Nestlé (other-otc: NSRGF - news - people ), Toyota Motor (nyse: TM - news - people ) and Walt Disney (nyse: DIS - news - people ), as well as rising stars such as Turkcell (nyse: TKC - news - people ), Turkey's biggest wireless telecom company, and Infosys Technologies (nasdaq: INFY - news - people ), a technology service firm headquartered in India.
To find these global superstars, we analyzed 26 industries of the
global 2000 (we excluded trading companies) and gave each company
scores for a low debt-to-capital ratio, long- and short-term sales
growth, profit growth, return on capital and total return over five
years. The composite performance score also wires in earnings growth
forecasts tabulated by Thomson IBES. We deleted a few candidates with
good numbers but big problems.
Other requirements for the global high performers list: shares
traded in the U.S. or american depositary receipts, a share price of at
least $5, positive equity and sales of at least $1 billion.
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