County Has 10 of State’s 100 Largest Private Firms
Orange County is home to 10 of the 100 largest privately held companies in California, and four local firms are in the top 20, according to an annual survey released this week by California Business magazine,
Pacific Financial Co., a Newport Beach insurance and pension company with annual revenues of $2.09 billion, again heads the list of the county’s largest private firms. Statewide, Pacific Financial ranked fourth, behind Safeway Stores (recently taken private in a leveraged buyout), Bechtel Group, and Levi Strauss & Co.
The most prominent new entry on this year’s list is McGuinness Group, a Newport Beach enterprise that operates as a wholesale distributor of financial products such as insurance policies, annuities and limited partnerships.
The company posted revenues of $783 million last year to rank No. 17 in the state and No. 4 in the county, according to California Business, but a company spokesman noted that the figure represented total sales rather than operating revenues. He declined to provide a figure for operating revenues and added that the firm had not been included last year because it had not been approached by the magazine.
Another, less lofty newcomer to the top 100, Irvine-based Brinderson Corp., was also overlooked in the past. Brinderson, a heavy construction and real estate firm, placed 75th with revenues of $280 million.
California Business acknowledged that some companies may not be listed simply because the editors were not aware of them or because they refused to provide revenue figures. Unlike publicly traded firms, private companies are not required to divulge any financial information.
The revenue figures which appear in the magazine survey were provided by the individual bfirms, and any company that refused to provide numbers was automatically excluded from the list.
TOP 10 PRIVATE COMPANIES IN ORANGE COUNTY
Company: Business Description, City Pacific Financial Co: Life/Health Insurance, Newport Beach Restaurant Enterprise Group: Restaurant Operator, Irvine William Lyon Co.: Developer, Newport Beach McGuinness Group: Financial Marketing, Newport Beach The Irvine Co.: Developer, Newport Beach The Koll Co.: General Contractor, Newport Beach Chilay Corp.: Food Broker & Mfg., Anaheim Freedom Newspapers: Communications/Publishing, Irvine Sequoia Supply Inc.: Building materials distributor, Irvine Brinderson Corp.: Construction/Real Estate, Irvine TOP 10 PRIVATE COMPANIES IN ORANGE COUNTY
Fiscal 1988 1989 1988 Revenue Company Rank Rank (Millions) Pacific Financial Co. 4 3 $2,088.0 Restaurant Enterprise Group 7 5 1,200.0 William Lyon Co. 14 15 900.0 McGuinness Group 17 -- 783.0 The Irvine Co. 30 24 580.0 The Koll Co. 40 48 475.2 Chilay Corp. 45 50 450.0 Freedom Newspapers 52 70 400.0 Sequoia Supply Inc. 74 74 284.0 Brinderson Corp. 75 -- 280.0
Source: California Business
