Forbes Global 2000 Totally Explained

Everything about The Forbes Global 2000 totally explained

The Forbes Global 2000 - is an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world by Forbes magazine. The ranking is based on a mix of four metrics: Sales, Profit, Assets and Market value. The list is published since 2003. The Forbes Global 2000 is a useful indicator of which are the leading public companies in the world, but it's only an interpretation, as only public companies are listed. The results are not definitive; any change to the criteria would produce a different list.

Exclusions and inconsistencies

As the list is published early in the calendar year, Forbes has to use out of date information for the many non U.S companies which have year ends early in the calendar year, including Japanese companies, which all have 31 March year ends. No adjustments are made to reflect different accounting practices in different countries, which leads to some major anomalies. For example Vodafone is ranked 377 in the 2005 list due to losses created by huge writedowns of purchased goodwill, but if amortisation of purchased goodwill were not charged against statutory profits in the UK, it would be in the top 20. It should also be noted that wholly state-owned corporations are excluded because no market valuation exists and in some cases accounts are not publicly available either. Some of these state companies would rank highly if they were eligible, for example the national oil companies of some of the OPEC countries.

2008 list

Listed below are the top 20 companies featured on the 2008 list.

1	HSBC	UK	Banking	146.5	19.1	2,349.0	180.8
2	General Electric	USA	Conglomerate	172.7	22.2	795.3	330.9
3	Bank of America	USA	Banking	119.2	15.0	1,715.8	176.5
4	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	USA	Banking	116.4	15.4	1,562.2	136.9
5	ExxonMobil	USA	Oil and gas	358.6	40.6	242.1	465.5
6	Royal Dutch Shell	Netherlands	Oil and gas	355.8	31.3	266.2	221.1
7	BP	UK	Oil and gas	281.0	20.6	236.1	204.9
8	Toyota	Japan	Automotive	203.8	14.0	276.4	175.1
9	ING Group	Netherlands	Insurance	197.9	12.7	1,932.2	75.8
10=	Berkshire Hathaway	USA	Diversified Financials	118.3	13.2	273.2	216.7
10=	Royal Bank of Scotland	UK	Banking	108.5	14.6	3,807.5	76.6
12	AT&T	USA	Telecommunications	118.9	12.0	275.6	210.2
13	BNP Paribas	France	Banking	116.2	10.7	2,494.4	81.9
14	Allianz	Germany	Insurance	139.1	10.9	1,547.5	80.3
15	Total S.A.	France	Oil and gas	199.7	19.2	165.8	181.8
16	Wal-Mart	USA	Retailing	378.8	12.7	163.4	198.6
17	Chevron	USA	Oil and gas	204.0	18.7	148.8	180.0
18	American International Group	USA	Insurance	110.1	6.2	1,060.5	118.2
19	Gazprom	Russia	Oil and gas	81.8	23.3	201.7	306.8
20	AXA	France	Insurance	151.7	7.8	1,064.7	70.3

The complete list is available at http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/18/biz_2000global08_The-Global-2000_Rank.html.

2007 list

Listed below are the top 100 companies featured on the 2007 list.

1	Citigroup	USA	Banking	146.56	21.54	1,884.32	247.42
2	Bank of America	USA	Banking	116.57	21.13	1,459.74	226.61
3	HSBC	UK	Banking	121.51	16.63	1,860.76	202.29
4	General Electric	USA	Conglomerate	163.39	20.83	697.24	358.98
5	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	USA	Banking	99.30	14.44	1,351.52	170.97
6	American International Group	USA	Insurance	113.19	14.01	979.41	174.47
7	ExxonMobil	USA	Oil and gas	335.09	39.50	223.95	410.65
8	Royal Dutch Shell	Netherlands	Oil and gas	318.85	25.44	232.31	208.25
9	UBS	Switzerland	Diversified Financials	105.59	9.78	1,776.89	116.84
10	ING Group	Netherlands	Diversified Financials	153.44	9.65	1,615.05	93.99
11	BP	UK	Oil and gas	265.91	22.29	217.60	198.14
12	Toyota	Japan	Automotive	179.02	11.68	243.60	217.69
13	Royal Bank of Scotland	UK	Banking	77.41	12.51	1,705.35	124.13
14	BNP Paribas	France	Banking	89.16	9.64	1,898.19	97.03
15	Allianz	Germany	Insurance	125.33	8.81	1,380.88	87.22
16	Berkshire Hathaway	USA	Diversified Financials	98.54	11.02	248.44	163.79
17	Wal-Mart	USA	Retailing	348.65	11.29	151.19	201.36
18	Barclays	UK	Banking	67.71	8.95	1,949.17	94.79
19	Chevron	USA	Oil and gas	195.34	17.14	132.63	149.37
20	Total S.A.	France	Oil and gas	175.05	15.53	138.82	152.62
21	HBOS	UK	Banking	84.28	7.59	1,156.61	79.83
22	ConocoPhillips	USA	Oil and gas	167.58	15.55	164.78	107.39
23	AXA	France	Insurance	98.85	6.38	666.47	87.64
24	Société Générale	France	Banking	84.47	6.55	1,259.32	77.62
25	Goldman Sachs	USA	Diversified Financials	69.35	9.54	838.20	83.31
25	Morgan Stanley	USA	Diversified Financials	76.55	7.47	1,120.65	79.76
27	Banco Santander Central Hispano	Spain	Banking	62.34	7.37	945.86	115.75
27	Deutsche Bank	Germany	Diversified Financials	95.50	7.45	1,485.58	65.15
29	AT&T	USA	Telecommunications	63.06	7.36	270.63	229.78
30	Électricité de France	France	Utilities	77.75	7.39	233.40	133.37
31	Credit Suisse	Switzerland	Diversified Financials	65.64	9.05	1,029.22	74.55
32	Merrill Lynch	USA	Diversified Financials	68.62	7.50	841.30	73.78
33	Procter & Gamble	USA	Consumer goods	73.60	9.67	137.30	200.34
34	Wells Fargo	USA	Banking	47.98	8.48	482.00	117.19
35	Wachovia	USA	Banking	46.81	7.79	707.12	105.42
36	Eni	Italy	Oil and gas	113.59	12.16	96.91	122.48
37	Fortis	Belgium, Netherlands	Diversified Financials	121.19	5.46	1,020.98	55.45
38	Verizon Communications	USA	Telecommunications	88.14	6.24	188.80	109.19
39	Altria Group	USA	Tobacco	70.32	12.02	104.27	176.64
40	Mitsubishi UFJ Financial	Japan	Banking	35.01	6.56	1,585.77	124.55
41	PetroChina	PRC	Oil and gas	68.43	16.53	96.42	208.76
42	IBM	USA	Computer hardware, Computer software		9.49	103.23	139.92
43	Gazprom	Russia	Oil and gas	48.13	10.82	151.18	216.14
44	ABN AMRO	Netherlands	Banking	65.59	6.22	1,302.19	64.92
45	Crédit Agricole	France	Banking	77.66	4.60	1,246.97	64.52
46	Telefónica	Spain	Telecommunications	69.79	8.22	132.30	104.95
47	E.ON	Germany	Utilities	80.53	6.34	167.11	86.32
48	Pfizer	USA	Health Care	48.37	19.34	108.59	179.97
49	DaimlerChrysler	Germany	Automotive	199.99	4.26	235.11	68.78
50	Petrobras	Brazil	Oil and gas	74.12	12.14	95.61	99.29
51	Nestlé	Switzerland	Food processing	80.70	7.54	81.45	142.65
52	Lloyds TSB	UK	Banking	57.33	5.49	672.40	63.43
53	ICBC	PRC	Banking	31.98	4.65	800.04	176.03
54	BBVA	Spain	Banking	37.89	5.94	536.05	82.55
55.	Hewlett-Packard	USA	Computer hardware	94.08	6.52	81.31	106.27
56	Deutsche Telekom	Germany	Telecommunications	80.93	4.23	159.90	78.08
57	Fannie Mae	USA	Diversified Financials	51.83	4.98	1,020.93	55.34
58	NTT	Japan	Telecommunications	91.41	4.24	152.65	73.26
59	Mizuho Financial	Japan	Banking	29.03	5.53	1,269.60	81.31
60	Johnson & Johnson	USA	Health care	53.32	11.05	70.56	182.12
60	Siemens AG	Germany	Conglomerate	110.82	3.85	109.12	93.93
62	MetLife	USA	Insurance	48.40	6.29	527.72	48.02
63	Samsung Electronics	South Korea	Consumer electronics. Telecommunications	79.50	7.53	72.90	88.69
64	Aviva	UK	Insurance	87.42	4.33	555.18	41.14
65	Sumitomo Mitsui Financial	Japan	Banking	31.02	5.85	901.71	73.38
66	Microsoft	USA	Computer software	46.06	11.91	66.37	275.85
67	France Télécom	France	Telecommunications	64.86	5.19	125.01	70.62
68	Time Warner	USA	Media	44.22	6.53	131.67	77.99
69	China Construction Bank	PRC	Banking	23.18	5.84	568.21	126.55
70	Zurich Financial Services	Switzerland	Insurance	66.75	4.65	351.19	41.32
71.	Sinopec	PRC	Oil and gas	99.03	5.07	65.83	93.57
72.	Mittal Steel	Netherlands	Steel	58.87	5.23	112.17	70.46
73.	Honda Motor	Japan	Automotive	84.32	5.08	89.64	68.03
74.	Sanofi-Aventis	France	Health care	37.43	5.28	102.59	115.24
75.	Dexia	Belgium	Banking	95.78	3.56	745.42	33.80
76.	RWE	Germany	Public utilities	56.56	5.08	118.52	57.28
77.	Royal Bank of Canada	Canada	Banking	32.13	4.21	477.43	58.83
78.	Assicurazioni Generali	Italy	Insurance	90.90	2.27	398.13	54.50
79.	Home Depot	USA	Retail	90.84	5.76	52.26	80.80
80.	Novartis	Switzerland	Health care	37.01	7.37	64.16	130.47
81.	Nissan	Japan	Automotive	80.23	4.41	96.32	47.68
82.	Bank of China	PRC	Banking	23.10	3.41	585.55	143.80
83.	Lehman Brothers	USA	Diversified Financials	46.71	3.96	503.55	39.53
84.	KBC Group	Belgium	Banking	34.22	4.53	428.49	42.35
85.	GlaxoSmithKline	UK	Health care	45.45	10.55	45.85	161.20
86.	Hoffmann-La Roche	Switzerland	Health care	34.46	6.46	59.41	153.55
87.	UniCredit	Italy	Banking	21.50	2.92	922.79	96.24
88.	Prudential Financial	USA	Insurance	32.49	3.43	446.90	43.59
89.	China Mobile	Hong Kong, PRC	Telecommunications	29.79	6.56	51.35	185.31
90.	National Australia Bank	Australia	Banking	28.20	3.28	360.56	51.79
91.	Manulife Financial	Canada	Insurance	28.91	3.41	328.76	51.74
92.	Munich Re	Germany	Insurance	55.96	3.16	243.03	36.27
92.	Statoil	Norway	Oil and gas	67.86	6.51	50.55	54.59
94.	Deutsche Post	Germany	Postal Service, Air Courier	79.87	2.53	202.39	38.20
95.	Telecom Italia	Italy	Telecommunications	35.28	3.80	110.19	58.64
96.	Unilever	Netherlands, UK	Consumer goods	49.71	6.29	47.16	79.32
97.	BHP Billiton	Australia, UK	Mining	31.85	10.35	46.83	122.29
98.	AEGON	Netherlands	Insurance	47.16	3.50	414.61	31.46
99.	Allstate	USA	Insurance	35.80	4.99	157.55	37.19
100.	BASF	Germany	Chemical industry	69.41	4.24	58.93	50.91

The complete list is available at http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/18/biz_07forbes2000_The-Global-2000_Rank.html.

2006 list

Citigroup

United States	Banking	120.32	24.64	1,494.04	230.93
2.	General Electric	United States	Conglomerate	149.70	16.35	673.30	348.45
3.	Bank of America	United States	Banking	85.39	16.47	1,291.80	184.17
4.	American International Group	United States	Insurance	106.98	11.90	843.40	172.24
5.	HSBC Group	United Kingdom	Banking	76.38	12.36	1,274.22	193.32
6.	ExxonMobil	United States	Oil & Gas	328.21	36.13	208.34	362.53
7.	Royal Dutch/Shell	Netherlands	Oil & Gas	306.73	25.31	216.95	203.52
8.	BP	United Kingdom	Oil & Gas	249.47	22.63	206.91	225.93
9.	JPMorgan Chase	United States	Banking	79.90	8.48	1,198.94	144.13
10.	UBS	Switzerland	Diversified Financials	78.25	10.65	1,519.40	105.69

The complete list is available at http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/18/06f2000_The-Forbes-2000_Rank.html.

2005 list

Citigroup

United States	Banking	108.28	17.05	1,4.10	247.66
2	General Electric	United States	Conglomerates	152.36	16.59	750.33	372.14
3	American International Group	United States	Insurance	95.04	10.91	776.42	173.99
4	Bank of America	United States	Banking	65.45	14.14	1,110.46	188.77
5	HSBC	United Kingdom	Banking	62.97	9.52	1,031.29	186.74
6	ExxonMobil	United States	Oil & gas operations	263.99	25.33	195.26	405.25
7	Royal Dutch/Shell	Netherlands	Oil & gas operations	265.19	18.54	193.83	221.49
8	BP	United Kingdom	Oil & gas operations	285.06	15.73	191.11	231.88
9	ING Group	Netherlands	Diversified financials	92.01	8.10	1,175.16	68.04
10	Toyota Motor	Japan	Consumer durables	165.68	11.13	211.15	140.89

The complete list is available at http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/03/30/05f2000land.html.

2004 list

Citigroup

United States	Banking	94.71	17.85	1,264.03	255.30
2.	General Electric	United States	Conglomerates	134.19	15.59	626.93	328.54
3.	American International Group	United States	Insurance	76.66	6.46	647.66	194.87
4.	ExxonMobil	United States	Oil & gas	222.88	20.96	166.99	277.02
5.	BP	United Kingdom	Oil & gas	232.57	10.27	177.57	173.54
6.	Bank of America	United States	Banking	49.01	10.81	736.45	117.55
7.	HSBC Group	United Kingdom	Banking	44.33	6.66	757.60	177.96
8.	Toyota Motor	Japan	Automotive	135.82	7.99	171.71	115.40
9.	Fannie Mae	United States	Diversified Financials	53.13	6.48	1,019.17	76.84
10.	Wal-Mart	United States	Retailing	256.33	9.05	104.91	243.74

The complete list is available at http://www.forbes.com/2004/03/24/04f2000land.html.

2003 list

Citigroup

General Electric

American International Group

ExxonMobil

Bank of America

Royal Dutch Shell

Fannie Mae

HSBC Group

Toyota Motor The complete list is available at http://www.forbes.com/2003/07/02/internationaland.html.Further Information

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