Indian PSUs fare well in 2007 Fortune Global 500 List

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"After making a debut in the turnover-based annual Fortune Global club two years ago (with a rank of 459), ONGC has moved up steadily, thanks to its advancing topline," a company release said.

In the Mining and Crude-Oil Production industry, ONGC has been ranked 6th globally in this current 2007 ranking, up from 9th last year.

Reacting to the ONGC's upward urge in position in the Fortune Club, company Chairman and Managing Director R.S. Sharma said that this trend of moving upward for the last two years was likely to continue as certain projects, which are in various stages of implementation, would yield results in the coming years.

Meanwhile, BPCL and HPCL have been ranked ahead of big names like Hewlett-Packard, Alstom and Time Warner Group with their profits jumping by a huge 324.9 percent and 262.1 percent respectively in 2006, thanks to sale of oil bonds that figures under the revenue head.

Interestingly, the Global 500 list includes five Indian oil companies, four of them – ONGC, BPCL, HPCL and Indian Oil - being state-run entities and the lone private firm being corporate giant Reliance Industries.

State-run IOC continued to maintain its position as the highest ranked Indian firm on the 500 top corporate bodies worldwide, gaining 48 positions compared to 17 last year.

IOC is ranked 135th in terms of sales, 249th in profits and 380th in terms of assets. It is the 364th largest company in the world.

BPCL moved up 43 spots to the 325th rank while HPCL was placed 336th, up 32 position.

Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance figured as among the 25 fastest climbers - improving its position by 73 ranks from 342nd in 2006 to 296th position in 2007 - with a ranking of 23.

Reliance holds the 269th position in terms of sales, 179th in profits, 299th in term of assets and 190th in shareholder equity as it features as the 350th largest company among the top 500 corporate bodies.

All five oil companies figure among the top 40 petroleum refining companies in the global 500 list.

State-run State Bank of India (SBI)which made its debut on the list last year, improved its position by moving up three spots to 485th.

The US-based retail giant Wal-Mart tops the Fortune Global 500 list, pushing aside last year's topper energy major Exxon Mobil to the No. 2 spot.

The list, which was released Wednesday, July 11, has put Wal-Mart's 2006 revenue at about $351 billion, with profits of $11.2 billion.

Exxon Mobil made a profit of about $39.5 billion dollars on revenue of $347 billion.

The Fortune ranking is based on revenues, and six of the top 10 companies on the list came from the oil industry due to the skyrocketing energy prices.

Rounding out the top 10 on the list were Royal Dutch Shell; BP; General Motors; Toyota Motor Co.; Chevron Corp; Daimler Chrysler; ConocoPhillips and Total.

In terms of profitability among the 500 firms, Exxon Mobil was at the top, followed by Royal Dutch Shell ($25.4 billion); UAL ($22.9 billion) and BP ($22 billion dollars).

Interestingly, British mobile giant Vodafone, which is ranked 95th in the list, is among the top money losers with a loss of $10.2 billion in 2006.

Meanwhile, on Fortune's global list, General Electric has emerged as the most admired company, for the sixth time in eight years. Rounding out the top ten are Toyota Motor, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson,

Apple, Berkshire Hathaway, FedEx, Microsoft, BMW and PepsiCo.