IndiaPost.com - RIL top Indian pvt firm on Fortune 500; Tata Steel debuts

NEW YORK: Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has emerged as the top Indian private company on the latest Fortune 500 Global list, where the country's presence has grown to seven firms with a debut by Tata Steel.

The list, released by the US business magazine Fortune, includes two private (RIL and Tata Steel) and five public sector companies from India, topped by Indian Oil Corp (IOC), and including BPCL, HPCL, ONGC and SBI. IOC is the top-ranked Indian company among both private and public sectors at 116th position in the worldwide list, topped by US retail giant Wal-Mart.

Besides making its debut at 315th position, Ratan Tata-led Tata Steel has also been named as the company with highest revenue growth of over 353 per cent over the past year.

Tata Steel recorded 17th fastest growth in profit among all the companies globally, Fortune said. RIL, which has been ranked at 30th in terms of revenue growth, has jumped 63 places to grab the 206th rank.

SBI has been ranked at 21st place in terms of revenue growth. RIL is ranked second after IOC among all the Indian companies and is followed by Bharat Petroleum (287), Hindustan Petroleum (290), ONGC(335) and State Bank of India (380).

SBI is the seventh biggest climber among all the global companies, while RIL and BPCL have been ranked at 23rd and 50th in terms of gains from the previous year rankings.

In the worldwide list, Wal-Mart is followed by Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Toyota Motors. Other companies figuring among the ten largest worldwide include Chevorn (6th), ING Group (7th), Total (8th), General Motors (9th) and ConocoPhillips (10th).

The US continues to have the largest presence with 153 companies, even as the number is down from 169 in the last year. China has 29 companies on the list. Besides seven Indian companies, a number of firms run by Indian-origin people have also made to the list.

These include Nagpur-born Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup at the 17th position, billionaire steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal- promoted ArcelorMittal (39th) and Indra Nooyi-led PepsiCo (184th).

Vodafone, whose Indian-origin CEO Arun Sarin is retiring this month, has been ranked 85th. Citigroup has been ranked third among the banks, while SBI is at 54th position. PepsiCo is at third position in the food consumer products ranking.

Besides, ArcelorMittal is ranked at the top in metals sector, while Tata Steel is at the 8th position. Amongst the petroleum refining companies across the world, IOC has been ranked at 18th, RIL at 23rd, BPCL at 28th and HPCL at 29th out of 39 companies from the sector present on the list. ONGC has been ranked at the 7th in the mining and crude oil production space. RIL has also been ranked at 46th in terms of return on assets.