SMIC, BDO lead Philippines firms in Forbes Global 2000 list

MANILA, Philippines — SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) and its banking arm BDO Unibank Inc. lead Philippine firms in the latest Forbes Global 2000, the 19th annual ranking of the world’s largest public companies.

Only six Philippine firms made it to the list.

SMIC has the biggest market value ($24.3 billion) while BDO is the most profitable ($569.5 million) among Philippine firms.

SMIC ranked 877th while its banking arm, BDO Unibank ranked 1,159 in the global list.

The Forbes Global 2000 list measures the world’s largest public companies in terms of four equally weighted metrics: assets, market value, sales and profits.

According to Forbes, the 2,000 companies on the list offered a glimpse into the early economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.  These companies have seen their collective market capitalization surge 47 percent to $79.8 trillion, while their collective revenues slipped six percent to $39.8 trillion and profits have fallen 24 percent to $2.5 trillion.  Despite lower sales and profits for the Forbes Global 2000 companies, total assets and market value were up.

Other local firms in the list are San Miguel Corp. stockholder Top Frontier Investment Holdings, Ayala Corp., Lucio Tan’s LT Group and the Ty-controlled Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.

Globally, the Forbes Global 2000 list is dominated by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, followed by JP Morgan Chase & Co., Berkshire Hathaway, China Construction Bank and Saudi Aramco.