Fortune magazine released a list of the world's largest companies for the 27th time in a row in 2021, Zhitong Financial APP learned. Affected by the epidemic, the operating income of this year's Fortune 500 companies is about 31.7 trillion US dollars, down 5 per cent from last year. The threshold for entry into the rankings (minimum sales revenue) also fell from $25.4 billion to $24 billion. At the same time, corporate profits have fallen sharply. The combined net profit of all the companies on the list this year was $1.6 trillion, down 20% from a year earlier and the biggest drop since 2009.This year, WMT.US became the world's largest company for the eighth year in a row, China's State Grid rose to second place, AMZN.US made it into the top three for the first time, and AAPL.US moved to sixth place.
In terms of profitability, Apple topped the list with a profit of $57.4 billion. Saudi Aramco was not far behind, ranking second with a profit of about $49.3 billion. Japan's Softbank Corp. Group ranks third with a profit of US $47 billion. Bank of China Ltd., the big three in industry, construction and agriculture, continued to rank in the top 10 of the profit list. In addition, MSFT.US (MSFT), GOOG.US (GOOG) parent company Alphabet, and social media giant Facebook ranked fifth, seventh and tenth, respectively.
In this year's list, Chinese mainland (including Hong Kong, China) topped the list for the second year in a row, reaching 135, an increase of 11 over the previous year. Together with companies from Taiwan, a total of 143 Chinese companies are on the list. This year, the United States has a total of 122 companies on the list, an increase of one over the previous year.
There are a total of 45 new and re-listed companies on this year's Fortune 500 list, of which 18 are Chinese companies. They are: China Shipbuilding Group, Zhejiang Rongsheng Holdings Group, Zhejiang Hengyi Group, Rongchuang China Holdings Co., Ltd. (01918), Jingye Group, New Hope Holdings Group, Xinhua Life Insurance (01336), Weichai Power, Beijing Jianlong heavy Industry Group, Zhejiang Transportation Investment Group, Longfor Group (00960), Guangzhou Construction Group, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Group, China Resources Land (01109), Yunnan Investment holding Group, Wanzhou International (00288), Zijin Mining Group Group (02899), China Reinsurance (Group) Co., Ltd. (01508).
Internationally, Tesla (TSLA.US) and Netflix (NFLX.US) made the list for the first time, ranking 392nd and 484th respectively. In addition, Ikea franchisee Ingka Group is also on the list for the first time, ranking 286.
China and the World in recovery
Although the epidemic brought operational difficulties in 2020, the average sales revenue and profits of Chinese companies on the list were basically the same as the previous year. At the same time, due to the rapid recovery from the epidemic, the number of Chinese companies on the 2021 list has not only expanded, but also improved in horizontal comparison:
This year, the average profit of the Chinese mainland (including Hong Kong, China) companies on the list is about US $3.54 billion, which is higher than the average profit of 500 companies (US $3.3 billion). At the same time, the average profit of American companies fell to $5.1 billion.
The rate of return on sales and the rate of return on net assets are two important indicators. The rate of return on sales of Chinese mainland (including Hong Kong, China) companies on the list is the same as last year, at about 5.4%; return on net assets is down from last year, at about 8.7%-both higher than the average of the world's top 500 and lower than 6.5% and 11.8% for US companies. But the gap between Chinese and American companies is narrowing: last year, the return on sales of American companies was 1.6 times that of Chinese mainland & Chinese mainland, and the return on equity was nearly twice that of Chinese mainland. This year, the gap between the two indicators has narrowed to 1.2 times and 1.4 times, respectively.
China has effectively curbed the epidemic, enabling enterprises to rapidly resume and expand production, and the increase in foreign orders of Chinese enterprises has led to the expansion of foreign trade. In 2020, China is the only major economy in the world to achieve positive trade growth, with imports and exports reaching an all-time high for the whole year. The growth of international trade has promoted the recovery and stable development of Chinese companies.
Profitability comparison
In the return on net assets (ROE) list, HCA Healthcare of the United States jumped to the first place with a return on equity of 656%, while Lloyd's, a retailer of interior decoration materials in the United States, ranked second. Among Chinese companies, the top 10 are Lenovo Group (00992), Hengli Group, Rongchuang China Holdings Co., Ltd., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSM.US), Castle Peak Holdings Group, JD.com Inc Group (JD.US,09618), Midea, Tencent Co., Ltd. (00700) and Taikang Insurance Group.
The companies with the highest profit margins come from Japan, China and the United States. At the top of the list is Softbank Corp. Group, with a profit margin of 83.7%, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd in second place and Facebook in third place. Tencent ranks fourth with a profit margin of more than 33%.
There are seven Internet-related companies on the list this year, namely, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook (FB.US) of the United States, as well as JD.com Inc Group, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Group (BABA.US,09988), Tencent Co., Ltd. and Xiaomi Group (01810) from China. These big Chinese and American Internet companies have improved their rankings compared with last year. Among them, Xiaomi Group has the largest improvement in the rankings, up 84 places.
Highlights of the list
The companies on the list had total revenue of about $31.7 trillion in 2020, equivalent to 1/3 of global GDP that year.The total operating income and profits of the top 50 companies on the list are 30% and 35% of the total operating income and profits of all the companies on the list, respectively.
The total number of employees of the companies on the list reached 69.7 million. Wal-Mart is the largest employer, with 2.3 million employees worldwide.
The chief executives of 23 companies on the list are women, nine more than last year.
If ranked by country, the United States, China, Japan, Germany and France are among the top companies in terms of operating income and profits. The total operating income and profits of the companies listed in these five countries account for about 2/3 of the total operating income and profits of all listed companies.
The number of companies on the list in Beijing, Tokyo, New York, London and Paris accounted for about 1/3 of the total number of companies on the list.
This year, there are 45 new companies on the list, including 27 companies on the list for the first time and 18 companies back on the list.
Of the 26 industries on the list, 21 reported a year-on-year decline in total profits. Among them, the energy industry saw the biggest drop in profits, as much as 97%.
Since 1995, 164 companies have never failed.
ExxonMobil (XOM.US), which topped the list in 2006, fell to an all-time low of 23rd on this year's list.
The following is a list of the Fortune 500:
