Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Nestlé remains the most expensive company in Switzerland and beats globally even Toyota Motor. There are two more Swiss and three more Japanese companies among the 100 most valuable corporations worldwide. These are the results of an analysis by the auditing and consulting company Ernst & Young, which examined the market capitalization of the top 100 and 300 companies worldwide based on data of S&P Capital IQ. The ten most valuable companies in the world are all from the United States. And of the 100 most highly rated companies in the world, more than half are based in North America, only 23 in Europe and 19 in Asia.
Ten Swiss firms in Top 300
Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft are the most valuable companies in the world, followed Berkshire Hathaway, Exxon Mobil, Amazon.com, Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase and General Electric. The first seven were unchanged to last year. The most valuable non-US company is the oil company Royal Dutch Shell, which occupies 15th place with a market capitalization of 226 billion US dollars.
Nestlé remains the most valuable Swiss company and occupies 21st place with 214 billion US dollars. In addition to Nestlé, Roche (ranked 28th, 194 billion US dollars) and Novartis (ranked 35th, 171 billion US dollars) are among the 100 most valuable companies in the world. In the Top 300, there are also Chubb (141), UBS (155), Glencore (200), ABB (215), Zurich (247), Richemont (283) and Syngenta (289).
15 Japan firms in Top 300
Japan continued a strong showing. Toyota Motor is ranked at 31st place with a market capitalization of 181 billion US dollars. The other three Japanese companies in the Top 100 are the telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) at 91st place, the financial group Mitsubishi UFJ at 93rd and NTT Docomo at 95th place.
The next Japanese firms in the Top 300 are Softbank (ranked at 126) with 66 billion US dollars, KDDI (140), Japan Tobacco (148) with 60 billion US dollars, Honda Motor (176) with 54 billion US dollars, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial (178) with 53 billion US dollars, Mizuho Financial (204), Keyence (250), Nissan Motor (260), Fast Retailing (274) and Sony (297).
Europe falls back in ranking
Compared to the previous year, the number of European companies fell from 26 to 23. Stefan Rösch-Rütsche, Partner and Head of Transaction Services at Ernst & Young Switzerland, is reporting three weak factors: the impact of the European debt and economic crisis, the more traditional mix of industries in Europe and the decline of the euro.
“Europe shows currently no convincing picture: The continent is politically divided, drifts economically further, and continues to struggle with the state debt crisis, which can flare up again and again and weighs on the financial sector”, he said. Added to this are the strong reliance on traditional industrial sectors and a shortage of young technology companies that make it to the top of the world.
Young companies in the lead
“Well-established car, pharmaceutical and commodity groups play a major role in Europe, while young companies are scarce. In the US, five such companies, namely Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook, made it to the top ten”, the Swiss EY manager said. Additionally, the loss of European currencies leads to poorer rankings of European companies in the ranking, which is generated in US dollars.
Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft, three relatively young technology companies rank as the most expensive corporations, the oldest (Microsoft) of which is just 41 years old. For comparison, Nestlé was founded in 1905, already 111 years ago. “The US is currently clearly ahead in innovative and technology-driven sectors,” commented Rösch-Rütsche.
Text: Martin Fritz for SCCIJ; Photo: flickr/.christoph.G CC BY-ND 2.0
