Global Finance Magazine ranks world’s richest companies using data from Orbis

Data from Bureau van Dijk’s Orbis database has helped Global Finance Magazine to rank the top 25 richest companies in the world by the amount of cash on their balance sheets.

US tech firms dominated the list, with Microsoft, Alphabet and Apple holding cash balances of $132.9, $101.9 and $74.2 billion respectively. Other well-known names in the top ten include Cisco Systems, Oracle, AT&T and General Electric.

Three non-US firms made it into the top 10: Hong Kong-based China Mobile, Japan-based Toyota Motor and China State Construction Engineering Corporation.

“The top US big tech firms alone account for a whopping $446.7 billion in cash, 12% more than the previous year,” said Maria Obiols, author of the Global Finance article. “The richest were richer than ever as 2018 began. Last year, the cutoff to make the top 25 was $16.3 billion in liquid holdings, and only the top 10 had more than $25 billion. This year, the cutoff for inclusion soared to $24.4 billion, and all but one of the top 25 have more than $25 billion.”

In western Europe, the top companies were France’s Total, the UK’s BP, Germany’s Daimler, UK-based Royal Dutch Shell and UK-based Vodafone Group. The Netherlands’ Airbus and Italy’s ENI also appeared in the top 10, as did France’s Peugeot and Norway’s Equinor.

Global Finance Magazine also used data from Orbis to produce top 25 rankings for central and eastern Europe and Turkey, Latin America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa.

Orbis has information on around 300 million companies in all countries It’s the resource for company data, making it simple to compare companies internationally with standardized financials, extensive corporate ownership structures and beneficial ownership information.