KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) leads a handful of Malaysian firms in Forbes’ list of the biggest, most powerful and most valuable companies in the world this year.
Maybank ranks 378th in Forbes’ 17th annual Global 2000 list that is based on four metrics namely sales, profits, assets and market value.
Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), Public Bank Bhd and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd were ranked at 612th, 644th and 659th respectively.
For the seventh consecutive year, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China was ranked No. 1, while JPMorgan Chase & Co overtook China Construction Bank for the No. 2 spot.
China continues to sit atop the list, with Agricultural Bank of China at No. 4 and the Bank of China at No. 8, placing the country’s “Big Four” banks all still in the top 10.
Rounding out the list are Bank of America (No. 5), Apple (No. 6), Ping An Insurance (No. 7), Royal Dutch Shell (No. 9) and Wells Fargo (No. 10).
In total, the 2019 Global 2000 companies account for US$41.2 trillion in revenues, US$3.4 trillion in profits, US$186.7 trillion in assets and US$56.8 billion in market cap.
“Businesses across the globe has experienced an exceedingly strong year, and since the most recent Global 2000 list, companies featured have seen steady increases in overall revenues, profits and market cap,” Forbes said in a statement today.
“Banks and diversified financials had another particularly good year, with the majority of U.S. banks noticing an increase in profits due largely to a recent suite of tax cuts. The M&A sector also underwent a number of significant business moves, with the US$78.3 billion acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T topping the list,” it added.
Companies on the 2019 list come from 61 countries with the United States contributing the most with 575, followed by China/Hong Kong with 309 companies, up from 291 the previous year.
The increase was due in large part to 13 newcomers arriving via IPO, most notably Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, debuting at No. 426.
In total, companies from the Asia-Pacific region account for 40 per cent of the 2019 list.