The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Nine of the Philippines’s biggest firms have made it to Forbes’s biggest 2,000 companies in the world in terms of market capitalization.
The international business magazine listed the Filipino companies as SM Investments Co., 864th in the world; JG Summit Holdings Inc., 1,129 place; businessman Ramon Ang’s Top Frontier Investment Holdings, 1,194th; Ayala Corp.,1,224th; Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), 1,242nd; Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (Metrobank), 1,379th; Manila Electric Co., 1,514th; Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., 1,621st; and Aboitiz Equity Ventures,1,955th.
Holding company SM Investments Corp., with a market value and assets of $16.4 billion, has investments in retail, banking and property in the Philippines. It operates through three segments: Property, Retail, and Financial Services and others.
The Gokongwei group’s JG Summit has a market value of $12.8 billion and is engaged in consumer foods, agro-industrial and commodity food products, real-property development, hotels, banking and financial services, telecommunications, petrochemicals, air transportation and power generation.
Top Frontier has a market value of $1.1 billion and assets of about $29.1 billion. It is an investment holding company with interest in beverage, food, and mining exploration and development. It also holds interest in San Miguel Corp. and Clariden Holdings, Inc.
Ayala Corp. has a market value of $10.5 billion while BPI, its banking arm, has a market value of $7.6 billion and assets worth $32.2 billion.
Metrobank has a market value of $5.8 billion and Meralco’s market value is placed at $8.1 billion.
Telecommunications giant PLDT has a market value of $8.4 billion and AEV is valued at $7.7 billion.
China’s banking giants retain the top three spots on the list.
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China ranked No. 1 for the fourth consecutive year, while China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China remain at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.
Berkshire Hathaway, the largest company in the United States, moves up one spot to No. 4, followed by JP Morgan in the No. 5 spot.
Japan breaks into the top 10 with Toyota coming in at No. 10. Criteria for the ranking include sales, profits, assets and market value.
Forbes said its Global 2000 ranking is based on a composite score from equally weighted measures of revenue, profits, assets and market value.
The 2016 list features public companies from 63 countries that together account for $35 trillion in revenue, $2.4 trillion in profit, $162 trillion of assets, and have a combined market value of $44 trillion, Forbes said.
All four metrics are down from the 2015 ranking, as slowing global growth, collapsing commodity prices and declines in equity markets in the US, China and elsewhere pressured businesses and knocked stocks. The Global 2000’s combined market cap fell 8 percent year-on-year, Forbes said.
US- and China-based companies dominate the Top 10, with only Japan’s Toyota Motor at tenth preventing a clean sweep. Overall, 586 US companies make the list; 249 for China (mainland and Hong Kong); 219 for Japan; 92 from the United Kingdom and 67 from South Korea.
LUIS LEONCIO