LIC breaks into Fortune 500 list, Reliance Industries jumps 51 places

Recently-listed Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has broken into the latest Fortune Global 500 list, while Reliance Industries has jumped 51 places.

The nation's biggest life insurer with revenue of USD 97.26 billion and a profit of USD 553.8 million, was ranked 98th on the just released Fortune 500 list.

Reliance Industries jumped 51 places to 104 on the 2022 list.

This is the first outing of LIC on the list, which ranks listed companies by sales. Reliance, with revenue of USD 93.98 billion and a net profit of USD 8.15 billion in the latest year, has been on the list for 19 years.

The list, topped by US retailer Walmart, has nine Indian companies -- five of them state-owned, and four from the private sector.

Only the debutant LIC, which came out with its IPO last fiscal, was ranked higher than Reliance among the Indian corporates.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) rose 28 places to 142nd rank while Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) climbed 16 places to 190.

The list had two Tata group firms -- Tata Motors at 370 and Tata Steel at 435th spot. Rajesh Exports at 437th rank was the other private Indian company on the list.

State Bank of India (SBI) climbed 17 places to rank 236th and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd 19 places to 295.

Fortune Global 500 list ranks companies by total revenues for their respective fiscal years ended on or before March 31, 2022.

"The rebound from COVID-19 created a huge tailwind for the world's largest companies by revenue," Fortune said.

Aggregate sales for the Fortune Global 500 hit USD 37.8 trillion, an increase of 19 per cent -- the highest annual growth rate in the list's history.

Walmart landed at No. 1 for the ninth straight year, trailed by Amazon, which reached its highest ranking ever. Chinese energy giants State Grid, China National Petroleum, and Sinopec rounded out the top five.

For the first time, revenues from Global 500 companies in Greater China (including Taiwan) exceeded revenues from US companies on the list, accounting for 31 per cent of the total.

"The corporations that make up our annual ranking of the world's largest companies also reaped record-busting profits in 2021. But this year's turmoil has confronted the leaders of the Fortune Global 500 with a new set of crises -- many of them political as well as economic," it added.