Chinese Bank ICBC on Top in Forbes Global 2000 List

On this Wednesday the Chinese bank ICBC successfully pushed back oil giant of United States (US) Exxon Mobil from its coveted position as the World’s largest public sector company. ICBC managed to claim the pole position of Forbes Global 2000 list for the very first time since its inclusion in the list.

Chinese companies have done really well in context of profit making and asset building in the last year, and for that good reason now these companies are happily claiming the top positions in global rankings list. Eventually China Construction Bank (CCB) has also moved up to 11 spots from last year to the 2^nd position on the Forbes list of world’s biggest public sector companies.

One of the prolific editors of the list Mr. Scott DeCarlo quoted, “This year's list again reveals the dynamism of global business."  According to him the overall look of global business has changed drastically over the years, and it has become more aggressive now than earlier.

Forbes stated that the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the China Construction Bank (CCB) were positioned higher in the ranks as these two banks managed to surpass double-digit growth in both profits and sales in the year of 2012. In spite of that the overall annual profit growth for both of the banks was the slowest rate from the time they went public.

It has to be mentioned here that last year ICBC managed to bring in $37.8 billion in profits on $2.8 trillion in assets, while the CCB had earned $30.6 billion in profits on $2.2 trillion in assets.

"Most analysts don't expect a banking crisis in China, but rising defaults and shrinking loan profitability are serious threats to the country's banking system," Forbes added in its press release.

Now we must understand the rankings criteria of Forbes global top 2000 list. The rankings are mainly judged in context of an equal weighting of sales, assets, market value and profits. All of the factors are equally important, and the editors considered all of them while preparing the final list of the world’s largest public companies.

Wall Street bank JPMorgan Chase slipped down for the 2^nd consecutive year, as its sales were continuously dipping for last two years. Eventually it was the world's biggest company in 2011, and last year it was placed at the 2^nd position by the Forbes. In the recent list of 2013 the company slipped from number two to number three.

General Electric, which is one of the leading US companies, also moved down to the fourth spot, which is a little surprising too. Few months back FranciscoD’Souza has become Youngest Director of General Electric.

Last year the Oil and Gas giant of the US, Exxon Mobil claimed the pole position of this same list. It enjoyed one-year reign at the top, but in this year’s list it slipped down to the shocking 5^th spot. In spite of that ExxonMobil is still the world's most profitable company for the second consecutive year with a total net income of $44.9 billion, Forbes added.

The tech giant and the ruling king of smartphone markets Apple has vied over the past year with ExxonMobil for the coveted crown of world's most valuable company by market capitalization. In the recent list Apple was positioned at number 15 with Wal-Mart Stores.

Another highlighting factor of the said list is that Wal-Mart has successfully reclaimed the top spot as the world’s sales leader with a substantial growth of 5 percent from Dutch-Anglo Energy firm Royal Dutch Shell.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics, Germany's Allianz and US-based AT&T were also included into the top 25 ranked companies. Germany's Allianz was the most gainer in this year’s list, as it moved up to 25^th spot from 50th in last year's list.

The United States is still dominating the list, as this year it added 19 new members. Now the US has total 543 members in Forbes Global Top 2000 list, which is its highest total since 2009. On the other hand Japan lost seven members, but still it held its position of second-biggest country on the list with a total of 251 members.

In 2004 Forbes prepared this list for the very first time, and since then the new list was the first time when China did not increase the number of its members in the list. Nevertheless it still had the tag of third-largest country with 136 members in total.

Eventually three Asian countries had shown tremendous growth over the last year, and Forbes did not forget to highlight that. These countries are Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. It also has to be mentioned here that Belgium, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates had the largest rise in the company market values, growing by double digits from a year ago.

Countries like Vietnam, the Czech Republic and New Zealand had only one firm on the coveted list. Basically there are eleven countries with just a single company in the list.

Do you like this article and want to stay updated with all the Latest Current Affairs updates? If yes then please take a second to Subscribe via Email or join our G+ Community. You can send your queries, suggestions to us by accessing this Contact Us Form, or you can play Current Affairs 2013 Quiz too.