PwC: “Beyond” Apple and Amazon, Microsoft became the world’s largest capitalization company in 2019

According to the Global Top 100 ranking (Global Top 100) announced by PwC, the market capitalization of the 100 largest public companies in the world has increased by $ 1.040 billion (5%) within 12 months. This increase is lower than the 15% increase in the 2018 study. This reflects greater challenges from the market.

The growth of market capitalization in the past year was mainly due to US companies, based on a solid economic environment. The group of Chinese companies (-4%) and Europe (-5%) in the ranking has declined in market capitalization, which is different from last year.

Technology sector continues to dominate. However, the strongest growth in the past year was in the fields of health care, consumer services and telecommunications.

This is the fifth year in a row that US companies account for more than half (54%) of the Top 100 Global Position. The total market capitalization of these companies has increased by 9%, higher than the average of the world. US companies now account for 63% of global market capitalization, higher than last year’s 61%.

Chinese companies (including Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan) are the second largest group in the Global Top 100 in terms of total market capitalization. However, this total value has decreased by 4% in the past 12 months due to instability in international trade and impact on domestic market sentiment. This trend contrasts with the 57% increase in 2018, when three more Chinese companies entered the Global Top 100 and the two companies rose to the Top 10.

Geopolitical challenges, including the ambiguity of Brexit, may have affected European-based companies in the rankings over the past year. 3 European-based companies have left the Global Top 100. Overall, European companies in the rankings have reduced their market capitalization by 5%.

The technology sector continues to be the leader in market capitalization in the Global Top 100, followed by finance in 2nd place and health care in 3rd place. Growth in the health care sector , consumer and telecommunication services all reached 15%. Meanwhile, the technology sector only increased by 6% because of some fluctuations at the end of 2018. Finance is the weakest field of operation and has decreased by 3% in market capitalization.

Technology and e-commerce companies continue to dominate the Top 10, in which Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Alphabet in the top 4 positions; Facebook, Alibaba and Tencent in 6th, 7th and 8th positions respectively.

Microsoft’s market capitalization has increased by $ 202 billion, or 29% compared to 2018. This is the highest absolute increase in companies and also the reason Microsoft has risen to the top position. Next, Microsoft is Apple, Amazon and Alphabet. The top four companies have an average market capitalization of about 40% higher than the fifth ranked company, Berkshire Hathaway ($ 494 billion).

Besides public companies, PwC also analyzed the value of the top 100 unicorn start-up companies. PwC’s analysis showed that the total value of these 100 companies rose 6% to $ 815 billion as of March 31, 2019. This increase is quite similar to public companies. Nearly half (48%) of the top 100 unicorns from the US, are also in line with the trend of the Global Top 100.

Notably, China accounts for about 30% of Top 100 start-up unicorns, both in quantity and value. This rate is much higher than the ratio of Chinese public companies in the Global Top 100. Unicorns start-ups are considered an important source for future IPOs and acquisitions. Therefore, it can be predicted that more Chinese companies will enter the Global Top 100 in the near future.

Mr. Ross Hunter, leader of IPO Center, PwC UK said: “Although technology companies do not achieve as good results as in previous years, this field continues to dominate the Global Top 100. In particular, the top 4 giants of America far outstripped the remaining companies. In the long term, we predict that this imbalance will be reduced by the development of Chinese technology companies. The large number of unicorn start-ups from China is a sign of this change. ”