Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993 TAG: 9303310100
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Short
Altogether, the companies on the new Fortune 500 list earned $10.5 million, the lowest earnings total since Fortune began the rankings in 1955, the magazine said Tuesday. In 1991, the Fortune 500 earned a collective $55.1 billion.
The annual list, in Fortune's April 19 issue, was the first comprehensive assessment of the impact of a new accounting rule on 1992 corporate profits. Without the rule, earnings of Fortune 500 companies would have risen to $70.5 billion from a year earlier, the magazine said.
The rule requires companies to put aside large sums of money to reflect the cost of cumulative liability for retiree health benefits. Previously, companies only had to report the costs as they were incurred, which masked long-term liability.
Some companies set aside the money in 1991 and some will wait until a deadline this year, but scores of companies bit the bullet in 1992.
The magazine bases its list on total revenue and rates only industrial companies. Toys and sporting-goods companies posted the biggest sales increases, followed by motor vehicles and parts, beverages, apparel, and soap and cosmetics companies.
The biggest losers in sales were mining and crude oil production, building materials, aerospace, petroleum refining, and industrial and farm equipment manufacturers.
by CNB