Fewer Multinationals

Los Angeles may be a gateway to the Pacific, but the city ranks only fourth--and shares the spot at that--among all cities as a home for U.S. multinationals.

In its annual survey of multinationals headquartered in the United States, Forbes magazine said Los Angeles, Dallas and Philadelphia shared fourth place, with each hosting four multinationals firms.

The magazine ranked the firms according to their total foreign sales in 1985.

Los Angeles is home for Atlantic Richfield with $2.14 billion in foreign sales, Occidental Petroleum with $3.62 billion, Security Pacific with $1.05 billion and Unocal with $1.78 billion.

Other California cities hosting big multinationals are Oakland for Safeway Stores with $4.26 billion), San Francisco for BankAmerica with $5.14 billion and Chevron with $12.72 billion and San Jose for Hewlett-Packard with $2.81 billion.

New York continues to hold the No. 1 spot as a resident city for 27 of the 100 largest U.S. multinational companies.

That is more than triple the eight multinationals based in second-ranked Chicago. Exxon was top among the New York-based multinationals with $59.07 billion in 1985 foreign sales.

Mobil was second with $32.68 billion. Texaco of White Plains, N.Y., was next with $21.86 billion and IBM of Armonk, N.Y., was fourth with $21.55 billion. Detroit and Pittsburgh tied for third place among the cities, each hosting five of the top 100 multinationals.

Detroit, however, is headquarters for General Motors, which is the fifth-largest multinational with foreign sales of $16.17 billion, and the sixth largest, Ford Motor with $15.99 billion.

Six cities are home for two multinationals each: Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Stamford, Conn., Wilmington, Del., and Akron, Ohio.