Financial Times: Germany loses big company crown to Swiss: "In October 1985, continental Europe's biggest company was Royal Dutch/Shell...": "It has been replaced in the number one spot by Total, the French oil group with a capitalisation of nearly €147bn ($173bn). Total was only ranked at 88 in 1985 before two big mergers pushed it up the league tables.": Wednesday 23 November 2005
Switzerland has stolen Germany's crown as home to continental Europe's market heavyweights.
German companies, which accounted for as many as seven of Europe's top 10 multinationals in terms of market capitalisation 20 years ago, are now conspicuous by their absence in a league table compiled by Fidelity International.
The rankings reflect the changing European corporate landscape as car manufacturers, engineering groups and chemical companies give ground to pharmaceuticals and telecommunications companies and once-insignificant economies such as Spain and Finland emerge on to the global stage.
Even so, the US fund manager's research, based on the MSCI Europe index excluding the UK, is likely to make uncomfortable reading for Angela Merkel who was sworn in as chancellor yesterday to head Germany's grand governing coalition.
In October 1985, continental Europe's biggest company was Royal Dutch/Shell, followed by a string of German giants including Daimler Benz, Siemens, Allianz, Deutsche Bank, Bayer, BASF and Hoechst.
The two other top 10 companies in those days were the Swiss Bank Corporation (now UBS) and Italy's Assicurazioni Generali.
Shell would still have featured as continental Europe's biggest market cap in the latest rankings if it had not opted this year for a single listing on the London Stock Exchange.
It has been replaced in the number one spot by Total, the French oil group with a capitalisation of nearly €147bn ($173bn). Total was only ranked at 88 in 1985 before two big mergers pushed it up the league tables.
Total is followed by four Swiss multinationals
– Novartis, Nestlé, Roche and UBS – giving Switzerland the biggest share in the top 10 and confirming the country's reputation as a fertile breeding ground for multinationals.The five other companies in the top 10 are Sanofi-Aventis, the French drug group (Aventis was created by a merger between France's Rhone-Poulenc and Germany's Hoechst); Santander, the Spanish banking group and Spain's Telefónica; Nokia, the Finnish telecommunications equipment maker; and Italy's ENI oil group.
Even after its merger with Chrysler, Daimler has dropped to 21 in the listings.
Bayer, which was eighth two decades ago, is now at 43. Siemens, the third biggest continental European market cap 20 years ago, has dropped to 11.
Copyright 2005 Financial Times
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