20 S'pore-listed firms in Forbes' Global 2000

Singapore

TWENTY Singapore-listed companies have made it to the list of Forbes' latest Global 2000, a ranking of the world's biggest public companies using a composite score based on revenues, profits, assets and market value.

The 20 companies include homegrown names in the aerospace & defence, airline, electronics, food-processing, real estate, hospitality and semiconductor industries.

Also in that list are conglomerates, construction and telecommunication services firms, regional banks as well as trading and trucking companies.

At the top of the Singapore list is DBS Group at 268th position with sales of US$9.8 billion, profits of US$3.2 billion, assets of US$332.6 billion and market value of US$37.5 billion.

It is followed by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) in 302nd spot and Singtel (325th). Next is United Overseas Bank (UOB) at 348th.

Reflecting a growing local commodities industry, Wimar and Olam - two of Singapore's largest agricultural houses - made the list, coming in at the 369th and 1,237th positions respectively. Ranked 1,796th is Golden Agri-Resources.

Other Singapore firms in the list include property giants CapitaLand (901st), City Developments (1,503rd) and Frasers Centrepoint (1,946th), as well as other blue chips such as Keppel Corp (639th) and Sembcorp Industries (1,283rd).

Together, the 20 Singapore-listed firms posted US$213.04 billion in sales and US$20.82 billion in profits. The total assets and market value of the firms amounted to US$1,143 billion and US$281.2 billion respectively.

The ranking was determined by a confluence of sales, profits, total assets and market value. All figures, which are in US dollars, are consolidated by Forbes, which used the latest fiscal year financial data for international companies.

The latest 12-months' financial data were used for companies in the US, Canada and off-shore regions like the Bermuda. Of the 2,000 in the list, 579 were US firms. Meanwhile, Japan saw 218 of its public-listed firms on the list, while there were 94 and 66 UK and South Korea firms respectively.

The limelight was on the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which took the top spot on the Global 2000 list. The next three spots were also taken by Chinese banks - China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China. China, including both the mainland and Hong Kong, had 232 firms in the Global 2000 list.

The fifth spot went to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.