The World’s 50 Most Profitable Companies in 2016
The cumulative sales of the Global 500 – Fortune magazine’s annual list of the biggest companies on the planet, – ranked by revenue, in dollars, for the previous fiscal year - declined for the first time since 2010. Total revenue shrank from $31.2 trillion in fiscal 2014 to $27.6 trillion in 2015, or 11.5%. Profits shrank by 11.2%, to $1.48 trillion. There are plenty of reasons for the reversal. A slowdown in China’s once-booming economy has affected companies worldwide. Growth in the U.S. and Europe remains modest at best. And sustained low oil prices have erased billions in sales for giant petroleum producers like Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and Sinopec.
Here is the list of the world’s most profitable companies in 2016:
| Rank | Company | Fortune Global 500 Rank | Profit ($M) | Profit Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apple | 9 | 53394 | +35.1% |
| 2 | Industrial & Commercial Bank of China | 15 | 44098 | -1.5% |
| 3 | China Construction Bank | 22 | 36303 | -1.8% |
| 4 | Agricultural Bank of China | 29 | 28735 | -1.3% |
| 5 | Bank of China | 35 | 27186 | -1.2% |
| 6 | JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 55 | 24442 | +12.3% |
| 7 | Berkshire Hathaway | 11 | 24083 | +21.2% |
| 8 | Wells Fargo | 67 | 22894 | -0.7% |
| 9 | Toyota Motor | 8 | 19264 | -2.5% |
| 10 | Gilead Sciences | 316 | 18108 | +49.6% |
| 11 | Verizon | 30 | 17879 | +85.8% |
| 12 | Novartis | 175 | 17783 | +74.2% |
| 13 | Citigroup | 70 | 17242 | +135.8% |
| 14 | Samsung Electronics | 13 | 16532 | -24.6% |
| 15 | Alphabet | 94 | 16348 | +15.6% |
| 16 | Exxon Mobil | 6 | 16150 | -50.3% |
| 17 | Bank of America Corp. | 64 | 15888 | +228.7% |
| 18 | Johnson & Johnson | 103 | 15409 | -5.6% |
| 19 | CK Hutchison Holdings | 473 | 15295 | +120.2% |
| 20 | Walmart | 1 | 14694 | -10.2% |
| 21 | HSBC Holdings | 68 | 13522 | -1.2% |
| 22 | AT&T | 23 | 13345 | +114.4% |
| 23 | IBM | 82 | 13190 | +9.7% |
| 24 | Gazprom | 56 | 12882 | +212.3% |
| 25 | GlaxoSmithKline | 278 | 12867 | +183.6% |
| 26 | Microsoft | 63 | 12193 | -44.8% |
| 27 | Korea Electric Power | 172 | 11752 | +360.5% |
| 28 | Intel | 158 | 11420 | -2.4% |
| 29 | Fannie Mae | 40 | 10954 | -22.9% |
| 30 | Bank of Communications | 153 | 10586 | -0.9% |
| 31 | State Grid | 2 | 10201 | +4.1% |
| 32 | China Mobile Communications | 45 | 10144 | -2.9% |
| 33 | Oracle | 260 | 9938 | -9.3% |
| 34 | General Motors | 20 | 9687 | +145.3% |
| 35 | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing | 403 | 9542 | +13.7% |
| 36 | Nestlé | 66 | 9423 | -40.4% |
| 37 | Daimler | 16 | 9345 | +1.2% |
| 38 | Roche Group | 167 | 9212 | -9.7% |
| 39 | China Merchants Bank | 189 | 9181 | +1.2% |
| 40 | Cisco Systems | 183 | 8981 | +14.4% |
| 41 | Ping An Insurance | 41 | 8625 | +35.3% |
| 42 | Disney | 164 | 8382 | +11.7% |
| 43 | Siemens | 71 | 8338 | +14.4% |
| 44 | Twenty-First Century Fox | 360 | 8306 | +84% |
| 45 | Anheuser-Busch InBev | 211 | 8273 | -10.2% |
| 46 | Comcast | 96 | 8163 | -2.6% |
| 47 | Shanghai Pudong Development Bank | 227 | 8052 | +5.5% |
| 48 | Industrial Bank | 195 | 7989 | +4.4% |
| 49 | Royal Bank of Canada | 297 | 7979 | -2.4% |
| 50 | Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group | 191 | 7925 | -15.7% |
Source: Fortune
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About the Author
Sergey Karpenko is a co-founder of Asian-links.com and a value investor who has lived in Asia for many years.
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