6 Philippines firms make Forbes ‘Global 2000’ list

MANILA, Philippines — Six Philippine companies made it to this year’s Global 2000 list by Forbes, an annual ranking of the world’s biggest, most powerful and most valuable companies.

These are the Sy-owned BDO Unibank and SM Investments Corp., Top Frontier Investment Holdings, Ayala Corp., Ty-owned Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. and Gokongwei-owned JG Summit Holdings Inc.

BDO ranked 1,018 with a market value of $11.2 billion while SM Investments ranked 1,092 with a market value of $21.6 billion.

Top Frontier, the majority shareholder of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp., is at 1,196th place with a market value of $1.7 billion.

Ayala Corp. is at 1,236th place with a market value of $11 billion.

Another Philippine giant, Metrobank, occupied the 1,639th spot with a market value of $6 billion.

JG Summit Holdings Inc. rounded out the six companies from the Philippines that made it to the list with a ranking of 1,720th. It has a market value of $8.5 billion.

Forbes said the rankings are based on an analysis of four metrics: sales, profits, assets and market value.

For the seventh consecutive year, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China is the top company on the list, followed by JPMorgan Chase & Co., which overtook China Construction Bank for second spot.

China continues to sit atop the list, however, with Agricultural Bank of China at No. 4 and Bank of China at No. 8, placing the country’s “Big Four” banks all still in the top 10, Forbes said.

“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),” Forbes said.

In total, Forbes 2019 Global 2000 companies account for $41.2 trillion in revenue, $3.4 trillion in profits, $186.7 trillion in assets and $56.8 billion in market capitalization.

Forbes said that the list is a reflection of the strong performance of businesses across the globe.

Companies featured in the list have seen steady increases in overall revenue, profits and market cap.

Forbes noted that banks and diversified financials had another particularly good year, with the majority of US banks booking higher profits due largely to a recent suite of tax cuts.

The M&A sector also underwent a number of significant business developments, with the $78.3-billion acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T topping the list.

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.