BHP Billiton Limited (ASX:BHP) has been named as Australia’s largest company in Fortune Magazine's Global 500 list of the world’s largest companies.
Among the Australian companies the global miner made the 108th spot followed by conglomerate Wesfarmers Limited (ASX:WES) in 171st position, supermarket giant Woolworths Limited (ASX:WOW) in 175th position and Australia’s Big Four Banks: Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX:CBA) in the 227th spot, Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX:WBC) in the 229th spot, National Australia Bank Limited (ASX:NAB) in the 224th spot and ANZ Banking Group (ASX:ANZ) in the 291th spot.
The list is ranked from the revenues generated by the world’s biggest companies. The overall top spot was this year taken by energy company Royal Dutch Shell, posting a 28 per cent rise in revenue last year to more than $484 billion and ending Wal-Mart's two year reign as number one.
Eight of the top ten companies were from the energy sector and the total 500 companies increased their revenue by 13.2 per cent from the year before.
BHP Billiton generated a net profit of $9.9 billion in the first half of its 2012 financial year.
