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U.S. Fortune 500 club tops $10-trillion mark

NEW YORK: The size of America’s Fortune 500 club — topped by retail giant Wal-Mart for second straight year — has crossed the $10-trillion-mark, but the combined profit earned by the companies fell by close to $140 billion last year.

According to the latest Fortune 500 list of America’s biggest corporations, which has been topped by discount retailer Wal-Mart Stores six times in the past seven years, the cumulative net profit of all these firms fell about 18 per cent to $645.2 billion in 2007.

However, the total turnover of America’s Fortune 500 firms rose by about seven per cent to $10.6 trillion.

The list, which has been published in Fortune’s May 5 edition, ranks the companies on the basis of their full-year revenue.

The magazine noted that “on June 13, 2007, the world changed for the Fortune 500. Why? Because on that day, the financial markets finally woke up from a dream.”

“As a result, the companies in the 500 (list) are still coping with the trauma of their abrupt return to reality, which included the group’s first profit decline in five years. And, no, the trouble isn’t over. Nor is it strictly a U.S. problem,” it said, adding that the shock to the U.S. financial system created aftershocks around the globe.

“The IMF has lowered its estimates of world growth for 2008, and the higher cost of capital is hurting businesses that need to borrow — which means everyone...” It said that in 2006, 156 companies in the Fortune 500 reported lower profits than the year ago, and 43 lost money. In 2007, all the numbers got worse with 183 companies seeing their profits fall and another 57 recording losses.

Auto giant General Motors has been named as the league’s biggest loser with a loss of $38.73 billion for 2007.

GM is followed by Sprint Nextel, Merrill Lynch, AMD, Freddie Mac, Delphi, Ford Motor, GMAC, Pulte Homes, Fannie Mae, Lennar, Newmont, Charter, Schering-Plough, Sovereign Bancorp, Sanmina-SCI, KB Home, Virgin Media, Avis Budget Group and SLM in the list of 20 biggest losers.

In the main list, Wal-Mart (revenue of 378.8 billion dollars) is followed by energy giant ExxonMobil (372.8 billion dollars), which had topped the retail major from its top slot in 2006. — PTI

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