Chinese bank ICBC now world’s biggest

Chinese bank ICBC knocked U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil from its perch as the world’s biggest public company Wednesday, ranking number-one for the first time on the Forbes Global 2000 list.

Underscoring the power move by Chinese companies to top global rankings, China Construction Bank leaped 11 spots from last year to the number-two spot on the Forbes list of the world’s largest public companies.

“This year’s list again reveals the dynamism of global business,” said Scott DeCarlo, the list editor.

Forbes said that ICBC ― The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China ― and CCB were bumped higher in the ranks by double-digit growth in both sales and profits in 2012, although annual profit growth for both banks was the slowest rate since they went public.

ICBC brought in $37.8 billion in profits on $2.8 trillion in assets last year, while CCB earned $30.6 billion on $2.2 trillion in assets.

“Most analysts don’t expect a banking crisis in China, but rising defaults and shrinking loan profitability are serious threats to the country’s banking system,” Forbes said.

The rankings of the Forbes top 2000 are determined by an equal weighting of sales, profits, assets and market value.

Wall Street bank JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest company in 2011, slipped from number two in 2012 to number three in 2013 as sales dipped.

U.S. conglomerate General Electric moved down a notch to the fourth spot.

ExxonMobil, the U.S. oil and gas giant, tumbled from its one-year reign at the top last year to the number-five spot, despite being the world’s most profitable company for the second year in a row with $44.9 billion in net income, Forbes said.

Apple, which has vied over the past year with Exxon for the title of the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization, was tied at number 15 with Wal-Mart Stores.

Wal-Mart reclaimed the top perch as the word’s sales leader with 5 percent growth from Dutch-Anglo energy firm Royal Dutch Shell.

Germany’s Allianz, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, and U.S.-based AT&T joined the 25 top-ranked companies. Allianz gained the most ground, rising to 25th from 50th in last year’s list. 

(AFP)