Swedish firms shine among Forbes Global 2000

Nordea Bank breaks into top 100, 27 firms from Sweden appear on the prestigious list. 

  • Swedish firms shine among Forbes Global 2000.
    This year, Forbes Magazine has listed 27 Swedish companies among the world's best 2000 corporations.

  • Placement of the 27 Swedish firm on Forbes Global 2000.
  • Nordea Bank, rising more than 20 notches since last year, broke through the magic one hundred barrier and came in at number 95, making it the highest rated Swedish company and the only one in the top 200. However, ABB (Asea-Brown Boveri), at spot number 143, which Forbes considers to be Swiss, undeniably has Swedish ancestry in it's "Asea" blood.

  • The next best "Swedish" company should, in all fairness, be shared with Finland. TeleSonera, descendant of both countries' former national telecom monopolies, listed in spot 208. Next in line, Svenska Handelsbanken took 267 and closely following, the firm whose stock dropped about a decade ago to less than the cost of a quart of milk, LM Ericsson, the telecom hardware magnate now mostly recovered, placed at 276.

  • In Swedish rank sequence, next was Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), the high profile favorite of many new investors which scored at 427, well within the world's top 500 firms.

  • Companies on the list have been classified according to sales, profits, assets, market value, growth, return to investors, future prospects and other factors. The Forbes Global 2000 firms - the world's biggest, most powerful companies - take pride in achieving a rating on the list because the magazine's assessment is viewed as an accurate barometer that shows how these giant enterprises compare.

  • Some interesting aspects this year of the total Global 2000, which started in 2004, include the fact that the presence of corporations from developing nations continues to steadily increase, shrinking the traditional rule of major industrial nations' companies. As an indication of this, 51 countries had Global 2000 companies in 2004, and today, 62 countries made the list.

  • Although the World Bank reports that global GDP should reach 2.7% in 2010, the recession has left scars on the Global 2000 list, which for the first time saw combined revenues and assets down from the previous year. Net income of the 2000 companies dropped to $1.41 trillion, a shrinkage of 13% from 2009's listing. Total sales of the Global 2000 fell to $30 trillion, down 6% from the previous year, and total assets of $124 trillion was a 1% tumble in one year.

  • Looking on the bright side, total revenues of the Global 2000 have increased over the half-decade by 55% and swollen from $19.4 trillion in 2004 to $30 trillion. Also since 2004, profits are up 85%, assets 82% and the employee totals have found over 12 million workers on the job.

  • To the right are Sweden's 27 companies that climbed on board this year's edition of the Forbes Global 2000 along with their placement numbers on the list.

  • Source: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/18/global-2000-10_The-Global-2000_Rank.html