Toyota, Mitsubishi on Asia's top firms' list

Toyota, Mitsubishi on Asia's top firms' list

Agency France-Presse, Hong Kong

Toyota Motor Corp. at number eight and Mitsubishi at number 10 led the way for Asia in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's top companies announced Monday.

Wal Mart, General Motors and Exxon Mobil took the top three places, followed by Royal Dutch Shell and Ford in the main list, where Toyota came 10th in the previous year's survey.

Toyota followed by Mitsubishi headed the separate Asia Top 50 list, with Japanese companies dominating the rankings in the region until Samsung Electronics broke the sequence with South Korea's first entry at number 14.

The top two Chinese companies, ranked at 16 and 17 in the Asian survey and 70 and 77 on the Global list, were China National Petroleum Corp. and China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec), with China Mobile Communications at 50 and 230, while Malaysia had a single entrant, the national oil company Petronas at 42 and 204.

Samsung Electronics was number 59 in the Global 500 rankings.

Fortune, which establishes the rankings according to revenues, said last year was a very difficult one with its parent company AOL Time Warner alone reporting a massive loss of some 98.7 billion dollars and accounting for half of the drop in profits

Total sales for the ranked companies were down US$281 billion it said, adding that "this year's Global 500 list reflects a world economy in the doldrums but also one in transition."

Asian companies ranked in the Global 500 list for the first time included China Life Insurance at number 290, Kookmin Bank of South Korea at 330, recently listed Seiko Epson of Japan at 463 and Kawasaki Heavy Industries at 500.