PetroVietnam enters Global 500

Workers at the PetroVietnam carry out technical checks. PetroVietnam has become the first Vietnamese firm to enter the list of the world's top 500 corporations. — VNA/VNS Photo Ha Thai

The accolade was announced alongside a different list of the nation's 500 largest enterprises (VNR500) yesterday in Ha Noi by the Viet Nam Report Company and online newspaper VietnamNet.

The ranking comes as the oil giant recorded revenues of VND762.8 trillion (US$36.33 billion) last year.

In the list of VNR500, the oil giant was followed by Samsung, the Viet Nam National Petroleum Group, the Electricity of Viet Nam, the Viettel Group, the Viet Nam Post and Telecommunication Group and Vietsopetro Joint Venture.

The six companies also achieved a turnover of more than VND100 trillion ($4.54 billion) each.

Phung Hoang Co, Vice Chairman of the company's management board, said the list of the top 500 companies reflected increasing revenue over the past seven years despite a variety of economic difficulties, such as a frozen real estate market, high inflation in 2011 and bad debts.

Co said the entry of the companies in the top 500 list proved that Vietnamese businesses had successfully exploited the opportunities available through international integration for generating sustainable revenue.

The ranking also revealed that private enterprises accounted for 44 per cent of the total companies on the list, while State-owned firms accounted for 40 per cent. Foreign-investor-led companies accounted for another 15 per cent.

Nevertheless, State-owned enterprises took the lead in terms of revenue, accounting for 62 per cent of the total revenue generated by all the companies. Private companies followed, with a 19.4 per cent share of the total revenues, while foreign firms accounted for 18.5 per cent.

More than 30 per cent of the companies in the list are new firms, a majority of which belong to the private sector.

Minerals, energy, electricity and financial firms ranked among the top revenue generators on the list.

The industrial sector had the largest number of companies in the list, accounting for 72 per cent of all the top companies.

Companies from the mechanical engineering industry topped the list in terms of return on equity (0.47 per cent), followed by power companies (0.46 per cent) and food and beverage manufacturers (0.43 per cent).

There was also a survey of chief executive officers (CEOs) at large companies, who provided their business expectations for 2014.

About 64 per cent of the surveyed CEOs estimated Viet Nam's inflation rate at around 7 per cent this year, which is similar to earlier expectations.

Around 83 per cent of the CEOs showed optimism about revenue this year, which is expected to be higher than the previous year, while 11 per cent of the respondents thought revenues would be unchanged. Five per cent of those surveyed believed revenues could decline this year.

At the event, the organising committee also honoured several foreign affairs agencies that contributed to the country's economic development.

The list was prepared using data compiled by the General Statistics Office (GSO) on the total assets, turnover, profits, growth rates and the number of employees of companies, as well as through surveys and estimates provided by enterprises.