Forbes Ranking These are the largest companies in the world in 2021
The post-corona fever is rampant on the stock exchanges. “Forbes” states in this year’s “The Global 2000” ranking: The market value of the 2000 largest listed companies in the world has increased by a gigantic 47 percent in the past twelve months. Together, as of April 16, 2021, they were worth $ 79.8 trillion on the stock exchanges. Business during the pandemic alone couldn’t explain this trend. According to the analysis, total sales fell by six percent to 39.8 trillion euros in the first Covid 19 year. Profits even plummeted 24 percent to $ 2.5 trillion. On the other hand, there was an increase in assets, which rose 11 percent to $ 223 trillion.
Largest companies in the world
The stock boom was also evident in the newcomers in the ranking. IPOs only added ten new companies to the list in 2019. In 2020, 30 companies were able to do this. The largest of these newcomers was the Chinese financial company Lufax Holding in 500th place. The generally rising share prices have raised the threshold for the Club of 2000. In 2020, a market capitalization of around $ 5.27 billion was enough to be considered by “Forbes”. On the current list, it was 57 percent higher at $ 8.26 billion. Forbes evaluates the size of a company based on four factors: sales, profits, assets and market capitalization.
“The Global 2000” illustrates the predominance of a few countries when it comes to the largest companies in the world. Almost three quarters of the companies listed are concentrated in just ten countries. In the top 10, the supremacy is even stronger. All but one of the seats will be divided between two industrialized nations. According to Forbes, these are the largest companies in 2021.
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# 10 Amazon
Amazon made the leap into the top 10 largest publicly traded companies in the world in 2021. Jeff Bezos’ company rose from 22nd to 10th place in the ranking. In 2019, Amazon was still in 28th place. In contrast to most of the companies in the top group of “Global 2000” from “Forbes”, the online retailer made excellent sales in 2020. They doubled according to the information (plus 102 percent) to 386.1 billion dollars (profit: 21.3 billion dollars, assets: 321.2 billion dollars, market value as of April 16, 2021: 1711.8 billion dollars). Amazon was able to show by far the highest sales in the top 10.
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# 9 Agricultural Bank of China
One of the four factors that Forbes uses to calculate the size of a company is its assets. This favors financial institutions in the ranking. They made up half of the top 10 in 2021. The Agricultural Bank of China started out in ninth place. The assets of $ 4,159.9 billion helped in particular. The sales were accordingly at 153.9 billion dollars, the market value at 140.1 billion dollars. With a profit of 31.3 billion dollars, the bank was able to top runner-up Amazon by around 50 percent.
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# 6 Ping An Insurance Group
According to Forbes, the world’s largest insurer comes from China. The Ping An Insurance Group moved up one place from sixth. According to the analysis, it had sales of $ 169.1 billion and assets of $ 1,453.8 billion. The bank shared sixth place with two US companies.
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# 6 Apple
Apple was one of the winners in the top 10 of the “Global 2000” 2021. The US technology company moved up three places to sixth place. This was primarily due to the market value of $ 2,252.3 billion and sales of $ 294.0 billion.
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# 6 Bank of America
Bank of America was third in sixth place. Above all, it shone with assets of $ 2,832.2 billion. Revenue ($ 98.8 billion) and profit ($ 17.9 billion) were comparatively modest. In terms of sales, Bank of America came in at the lowest value by far in the top 10.
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# 5 Saudi Aramco
With its IPO in 2019, Saudi Aramco had temporarily become the most valuable company in the world. The newcomer entered the top 10 of the Forbes 2020 list. The Saudi Arabian oil production company came in fifth in the current ranking with a turnover of 229.7 billion dollars and a stock market value of 1,897.2 billion dollars.
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# 4 China Construction Bank
On the other hand, things went downhill for the China Construction Bank. She fell two ranks to fourth. As of the reporting date, Forbes recorded sales of $ 173.5 billion and assets of $ 4301.7 billion.
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# 3 Berkshire Hathaway
Warren Buffett gets a good report from Forbes in 2020. Berkshire Hathaway improved by one place to third in the “Global 2000”. Sales fell slightly by around ten billion dollars to 245.5 billion dollars. In the top 10, this was still the third highest value behind Amazon and Apple. Assets of $ 873.7 billion and a market capitalization of $ 624.4 billion put the Omaha holding company in third place.
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# 2 JPMorgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase mirrored the general trend in Global 2000 during the pandemic: falling sales ($ 136.2 billion) but increasing assets ($ 3,689.3 billion) and higher market value ($ 464.8 billion). The US bank thus moved up one place to second.
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# 1 ICBC
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China defended its title as the largest company in the world in Forbes’ “Global 2000”. It came out on top for the ninth time in a row and, according to the analysis, posted gains in all four categories – sales: $ 190.5 billion, profits: $ 45.8 billion, assets: $ 4914.7 billion, market value: 249 $ 5 billion. With the exception of Saudi Aramco, all of the top 10 representatives were from China and the USA. It became geographically more diverse with the Korean conglomerate Samsung in eleventh place and Toyota Motor in twelfth place. The Volkswagen Group was the largest German company in 17th place.
