Exxon Mobil tops Fortune list of world’s most profitable companies
Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. topped the list of the world’s most profitable companies with an annual haul of $44.9 billion for its most recent fiscal year.
Following closely behind at No. 2 is technology firm Apple Inc., which raked in earnings of $41.7 billion. That’s according to Fortune magazine, which released its annual list of the 500 biggest corporations around the world ranked by their fiscal years that ended on or before March 31, 2013.
When ranked by revenue instead of profit, oil and gas behemoth Royal Dutch Shell snagged the top spot with $481.7 billion. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was second with $469.2 billion and Exxon Mobil was third with $449.9 billion.
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Energy companies have long dominated the top slots on the annual list. This year’s ranking saw seven of the top 10 slots taken by companies in the energy field.
In the previous fiscal year, the badge of most profitable company in the world went to Gazprom, the Russian energy giant that has extremely close ties with the government. Its former chairman, Dimitri Medvedev, for example, is Russia’s current prime minister and its former president. Exxon ranked second while Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron were fourth and fifth that year.
U.S. companies snagged the most spots in the top 500 with 132 corporations making the cut. At No. 2 was China with 89 companies.
The top 500 companies in the world collectively reported revenue jumping almost 3% to $30.3 trillion in the last fiscal year. Profit, however, dropped 5.5% to $1.5 trillion.
Stephanie Mehta, the magazine’s deputy managing editor, said in a statement that the falling profit overall can be attributed to shrinking profits at oil companies such as Chevron.
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