Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995 TAG: 9507190047
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORKI LENGTH: Medium
In Fortune Magazine's latest annual look at the 500 largest companies around the globe, Japan still is a revenue leader, though it has lost its grip as money maker.
The biggest company in the world was Mitsubishi Corp., posting $176 billion in annual revenues - more than AT&T, Du Pont, Citicorp and Procter & Gamble combined - but its profit was a relatively meager $219 million.
Five other Japanese companies in the top 10 also reported huge revenues, but relatively small earnings. With escalating costs and a questionable economic outlook, profits may continue to get squeezed, Fortune said in its Aug. 7 issue, which was released Tuesday.
Fortune this year combined its lists of biggest industrial companies with its service company list. The result was a new batch of big-revenue Japanese trading companies that took over the four top spots.
The strong revenues from the Japanese companies, which got a boost from the strong yen, pushed venerable American names like General Electric and IBM out of the top 10.
Second on the list was Mitsui, followed by Itochu and Sumitomo - all trading companies that like Mitsubishi were built exporting the goods of industrial post-war Japan.
General Motors, the leader of last year's list, was fifth despite a 17 percent revenue increase.
Half the 46 money losers in the list of 500 were Japanese. And m
Many Japanese companies showed profit increases only because the figures were translated into weaker dollars.
Japan fell behind the United States, ranking second as the home base for the world's biggest companies, with 149 of the 500. The United States was No. 1, with 151 companies on the list.
Overall, the magazine found that 1994 was a good year for the United States, which was helped, in large part, by the auto, computer and office equipment industries.
Ford Motor, ranked seventh, and GM were the largest contributors of total earnings in the auto and auto parts industry. Earnings shot up from $2.3 billion in 1993 to $20.4 billion in 1994, Fortune said.
Computer and office equipment leaders were IBM and Hewlett-Packard, helping that industry's earnings rise 88 percent in 1994. Its profits shot up 62.1 percent, though its revenues increased 9 percent.
The biggest money maker on the list was Royal Dutch-Shell with $6.2 billion in profits last year. Sony was the biggest loser, down nearly $3 billion in 1994, much of it due to its investments in Columbia and Tristar studios.
by CNB