Forbes ‘Global 2000’: Reliance Industries dominates India list; banks shine

Fifty-eight Indian companies featured on the 2018 Forbes ‘Global 2000’ list of the world’s largest public sector companies, the same number as last year. Banks and oil firms dominated among the Indian companies on the list of the world’s major, most powerful, and valuable publicly listed companies.

Forbes, which released the list on Wednesday, uses a mix of four metrics to create its list—sales, profits, assets and market value. Equal weightage is given to all four metrics to rank companies according to size. For this, the latest-12-months’ financial data is used.
 

The Mukesh Ambani-led oil-to-telecom conglomerate, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), catapulted 23 places to rank at 83, up from rank 106 last year, retaining its top spot as the most valued Indian company on the list.

The rise in popularity of its one-year-old telecom arm, Reliance Jio, and a bounce back in oil prices to earlier highs, has taken the market capitalisation of the company to $93.1 billion, up from $71.2 billion in the year-ago period. 

Following that the list also included Bharati Airtel limited, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and Motherson Sumi Systems Limited.

HDFC Bank, the country’s largest financier, took the second spot among Indian companies, ranking at 202 in 2018 (up 56 spots from rank 258 in 2017), with a market capitalisation of $77.6 billion.

Three oil companies and three banks each, found their spots among the top ten Indian companies. The country’s largest state-run bank, State Bank of India (SBI), with a market capitalisation of $33.3 billion made up the tenth spot among Indian companies. 

Other banks that also marked there position the Forbes 'Global 2000' list are, ICICI Bank Limited, HDFC Limited, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank,  Yes Bank Limited, Punjab National Bank,  Bank of Baroda,  Canara Bank,  Bank of India, Union Bank of India,  IDBI Bank, General Insurance Corporation of India, IndusInd Bank, Central Bank of India,Syndicate Bank, Corporation Bank,  Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Indian Bank, UCO Bank.

Twenty-two Indian banks found a spot on the list, a feat at a time when the entire Indian banking sector is struggling and battling high levels of stressed assets in a weak lending environment.

Five oil and gas companies, including ONGC (rank 266), Indian Oil (rank 270), Bharat Petroleum (rank 672), Hindustan Petroleum (rank 951)and GAIL India Limited found their place among the 58 top Indian companies. 

Tata Motors, the automobile arm of the salt-to-software Tata Group, was one of the two (the other being Mahindra & Mahindra) Indian automobile companies on the list. It ranked at 385 ($16.8 billion) on the Global 2000 list, falling 95 spots from its rank 290 last year.

Other companies  listed where Tata Motors Limited,  Bajaj Auto Limited and Hero MotoCorp Limited.

Among IT services, three companies made it to the list, including TCS (rank 404), Infosys (653), Wipro (rank 909).  Other companies mentioned where Larsen & Toubro Limited and Tech Mahindra Limited

Companies that were listed under public sectors where, Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited,  NTPC Limited, Rajesh Exports Limited, Coal India.

In the Forbes 'Global 2000' few of the Steel and textile Industries that marked there position where Tata Steel Limited, JSW Stel Limited, Grasim Industries Limited, Hindalco Industries Limited and Steel Authority of India.

Other companies listed were Rural Electrification Corporation Limited, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Limited, Power Finance Corporation Limited, Asian Paints Limited and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited.