Reliance Industries became the top Indian company in the latest Fortune Global 500 list. The Mukesh Ambani led oil-to-telecom conglomerate jumped 42 places to rank 106 on this year’s list, finally leaving Indian Oil Corp (IOC) in the dust. The country’s largest state-owned refiner had hitherto been the top ranked desi entity on the list. In fact, it had steadfastly topped the Fortune India 500 list, too, since it was first compiled in 2010.
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“This year, ranked 106, Reliance Industries has replaced IOC (117) as the top-ranked Indian company on the Global 500 list,” Fortune said, adding that over the past decade RIL’s revenue rose at a compounded annual growth rate of 7.2 per cent from $41.1 billion in 2010 while that of IOC increased at half the pace, or 3.64 per cent, from $54.3 billion in 2010. IOC has dived down 20 places on the latest Global 500 rankings.
According to Fortune, while RIL’s revenue soared 32.1 per cent from $62.3 billion in 2018 to $82.3 billion in 2019, IOC lags behind, clocking a 17.7 per cent growth in revenue from $65.9 billion to $77.6 billion in the same period.
Last week, Reliance Industries reported 6.8 per cent year-on-year growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 10,104 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2019. The Mumbai-headquartered company’s consolidated net revenue grew by 22.1 per cent to Rs 172,956 crore in same period.
“Growth in revenue was led by sharp increase in revenue from digital services and retail business, which recorded an increase of 55 per cent YoY and 48 per cent YoY, respectively. Higher refinery throughput on YoY basis, contributed to the increase in revenue for the Refining business,” Reliance Industries said in a regulatory filing.
“The journey of Reliance Industries, which marks its 16th year on the Global 500 list this year, to the top position has been interesting,” said the magazine. In 2010, its revenues were $13.2 billion less than IOC. The average difference in revenues of the two companies stood at $9.4 billion over the nine years to 2018. The gap started to narrow after 2016 and difference dropped to “$6.6 billion and $3.6 billion in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and Reliance Industries surpassed IOC by $4.7 billion in 2019”.
Over the past 10 years, IOC reportedly posted its highest revenue at $86 billion in 2012, when it ranked at 83, and the figure has since dipped by $9.8 billion. In the same time frame (2012-2019), RIL’s revenue has gone up by $8.2 billion. Interestingly, 2012 also saw RIL register its second-highest revenue of $76.1 billion, and ranked 99th on the list.
The other Indian companies to feature on the latest Global 500 rankings are Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), State Bank of India (SBI), Tata Motors, Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Rajesh Exports. While ONGC and BPCL both climbed close to 40 ranks to the 160th and 275th spots respectively, the others have all fallen down on the list. The steepest fall was by Rajesh Exports, down 90 places to 495th rank. SBI lost 20 places and now ranks 236 while Tata Motors slipped 33 places to 265th position.
There’s been a slight change among the top five on the rankings. While US giant Walmart continues to hog the top rank, Chinese state-owned oil and gas company Sinopec Group moved one rank up while Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell climbed two spots to 3rd place followed by China National Petroleum and State Grid.
Significantly, Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco appeared on the list for the first time, and straight into the top 10 at the sixth position. BP, Exxon Mobil, Volkswagen, and Toyota Motor ranked 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th, respectively.
