World's Biggest Companies

2015-06-30
Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream
In CHF billion.
Market Capitalization
No	CCY	Name	CHF Bln.	Fiscal Year
1	USD	APPLE	666.75	14-09-27
2	USD	GOOGLE 'A'	339.12	14-12-31
3	USD	MICROSOFT	333.58	14-06-30
4	USD	EXXON MOBIL	321.82	14-12-31
5	USD	BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY 'A'	312.85	14-12-31
6	HKD	PETROCHINA 'H'	287.33	14-12-31
7	USD	WELLS FARGO & CO	268.28	14-12-31
8	HKD	INDL.& COML.BK.OF CHINA 'H'	268.06	14-12-31
9	USD	JOHNSON & JOHNSON	251.74	14-12-28
10	USD	GENERAL ELECTRIC	249.46	14-12-31
Sales
No	CCY	Name	CHF Bln.	Fiscal Year
1	USD	WAL MART STORES	451.35	15-01-31
2	HKD	CHINA PTL.& CHM. 'H'	402.92	14-12-31
3	GBP	ROYAL DUTCH SHELL A	362.10	14-12-31
4	HKD	PETROCHINA 'H'	342.05	14-12-31
5	USD	EXXON MOBIL	339.00	14-12-31
6	GBP	BP	314.29	14-12-31
7	EUR	VOLKSWAGEN PREF.	209.78	14-12-31
8	GBP	GLENCORE INTERNATIONAL	196.51	14-12-31
9	JPY	TOYOTA MOTOR	194.64	14-03-31
10	USD	BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY 'A'	180.92	14-12-31
Net Income
No	CCY	Name	CHF Bln.	Fiscal Year
1	HKD	INDL.& COML.BK.OF CHINA 'H'	41.32	14-12-31
2	USD	APPLE	36.72	14-09-27
3	HKD	CHINA CON.BANK 'H'	34.14	14-12-31
4	USD	EXXON MOBIL	30.22	14-12-31
5	HKD	BANK OF CHINA 'H'	25.41	14-12-31
6	USD	MICROSOFT	20.51	14-06-30
7	USD	WELLS FARGO & CO	20.28	14-12-31
8	USD	JP MORGAN CHASE & CO.	18.67	14-12-31
9	USD	BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY 'A'	18.47	14-12-31
10	USD	CHEVRON	17.88	14-12-31

A few observations:

1. The top three companies by market cap now are all (kind of) software companies.

2. The next two companies by market cap are the only two companies that are in all three top 10 lists, market cap, sales, and net income. For Berkshire Hathaway, that is a little amazing, as it is not only a business conglomerate that is heavy in finance, which traditionally has comparatively lower revenues, but also is a holding company. E.g. it is a big shareholder of Wells Fargo, another top ten company by market cap _and_ net income (the later ones don't get attributed in proportion to Berkshire).

3. By sales, five top 10 companies are oil companies. All in the top six, only "topped" by Wal Mart. Glencore is another commodities company, that makes them six. Two car companies with traditionally very high sales. So Berkshire is quiet outstanding here. But who knows, Apple is not so far away..

4. By net income, three of the top five companies are Chinese banks. Now, I don't know if you can trust the official Chinese accounting, or if there is any transparent accounting of a bank's books at all, let alone both (I remember when Citi had a 20 billion USD profit year before Lehman), but it seems, China is definitely back on the scene. There are two more banks in the list, makes it 5 out of 10! JP Morgan seems to be untethered from the crisis (strange, isn't it)? Oh, and if you didn't know, Bank of China is not the biggest Chinese bank. ICBC is the one to remember. In case..

5. General Electric, once the champion itself, still made the top ten by market cap, but barely on rank ten. Still better than the likes of Wal-Mart, Cisco, or the total bankruptcy of General Motor. Still high on the list are Microsoft and Exxon however. Not sure Petrochina was on the top spot not so long ago as well.