Recent IPOs filed by Silicon Valley firms like Uber, Lyft, and Beyond Meat have garnered significant media attention in recent weeks. While the American news cycle has covered a lot about these newcomers to the stock exchange, they are only a small snapshot of the global network of public companies. Our newest visualization maps out the largest public company in each country, based on the most recent data from the Forbes Global 2000 list.
- In the full Forbes list of the World’s Largest Public Companies, 9 of the top 10 companies are located in either the U.S. or China.
- Overall, banks, tech, automobiles, telecommunications, and energy are the industries with the largest public companies around the world.
- According to Forbes, the Global 2000 have more than $40 trillion in annual revenue and more than $186 trillion in global assets.
The Forbes Global 2000 list draws upon data from FactSet Research systems, Bloomberg, and company financial statements to analyze the sales, profits, assets and market value of public companies around the world. These four factors are combined to calculate a composite score, which Forbes uses to rank the value of public companies. Our visualization above highlights the largest public company in each country by showing the company logo on the country. The darker shades of blue also indicate the public companies with the highest profits. Below, we have divided the visualization into regions and also highlighted the market value of each country’s largest public company. All monetary values are expressed in U.S. dollars. Here’s a closer look at how the biggest public companies vary by region.
Top 3 Countries’ Largest Public Companies by Market Value in the Americas
1. U.S. - JPMorgan Chase ($368.5 billion market value)
2. Canada - Royal Bank of Canada ($114.9 billion market value)
3. Brazil - Petrobras ($91.2 billion market value)
Among all countries in the world, the U.S. has the largest public company by market value Overall, the largest public companies in North American countries have higher profits and market values than the largest public companies in the Caribbean or South America.
Top 3 Countries’ Largest Public Companies by Market Value in Europe
1. Switzerland - Nestle ($281.3 billion market value)
2. The Netherlands - Shell ($264.9 billion market value)
3. Belgium - Anheuser-Busch InBev ($175.7 billion market value)
The largest public companies in Western Europe have higher profits and market values than the largest public companies in Eastern Europe. Notably, the National Bank of Greece, which is the smallest of the large public companies in Europe, has negative profits.
Top 3 Countries’ Largest Public Companies by Market Value in Asia
1. China - ICBC - ($305.1 billion market value)
2. Hong Kong - China Mobile ($197.6 market value)
3. Japan - Toyota Motor ($176.6 market value)
The most profitable and highest value Asian public companies are located in northeast Asia. The majority of the largest public companies in Asia are in the banking industry, but oil & gas and telecommunications also have a significant presence. Since only public companies are included on the Forbes list, the world’s most profitable company (Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco) is not shown on this visualization.
Top 3 Countries’ Largest Public Companies by Market Value in Africa and Australia
1. Australia - Commonwealth Bank ($92.8 billion market value)
2. South Africa - Standard Bank Group ($22.9 billion market value)
3. Kenya - Safaricom ($11 billion market value)
Africa has very few public companies on the Global 2000. The largest public companies in Africa and Asia also have profits under $10 billion.
Although most of the companies on the Forbes Global 2000 have been established for many years, there are constant newcomers filing IPOs and bursting onto the international stage. For example, in 2018 alone, 190 companies in the U.S. went public. How do you think these new IPOs will change the world’s largest public companies in the future? Please let us know in the comments.
Data: Table 1.1