European Corporations

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Europe v America | From Clout to Rout; Why European companies have become a fading force in global business. Economist, July 2, 2016.
http://www.economist.com/news/bu ... business-clout-rout

Note:
(a) "Of the 50 most valuable firms in the world, only seven are European, compared with 17 in 2006. No fewer than 31 are American, and eight are Chinese (few other emerging-market firms are really big yet)."
(i) But big Chinese firm are state-owned. Wanda Group does not make the list. See next.
(ii) Apparently the ranking is based on

Global Top 100 Companies by market capitalisation, 31 March 2016 update. by PwC.
http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/audit-s ... -companies-2016.pdf
(A) "Methodology • The Global Top 100 list ranks companies by their market capitalisation in US$ as at 31 March 2016/"  Slide 5
(B) "Top 100 companies per country of domicile – trends 2009-2016"  slides 9-11
(C) "Global Top 100 companies per country – absolute market capitalisation change"  slide 16  (China suffers due to its stock market crashes.)
(D) "Global Top 100 companies per country – relative market capitalisation change"  slide 17
(E) "Industry comparison"  slide 21 (Technology is No 1 industry among the op 100 companies.)
(F) The "complete ranking" (1-100) is found in slides 61 to 66.  (Taiwan has only one entry (TSMC) in 2015 and 2016 (ranked 48 in bih years) -- but not in 2009.)

(b) "The seven European firms that do make the cut are often oddities: three are Swiss, suggesting there really is something special about mountain air and rösti; another, AB InBev, a beer firm, is run by Brazilians who happen to have picked Belgium for their main share listing. The continent’s traditional heavyweight champions have become middleweight journeymen."
(i) rösti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rösti
(ii) According to PwC, the seven European companies are:

No 7 Nestle SA   Switzerland   Consumer Goods
19 Roche Holding AG    Switzerland   Health Care
22 Anheuser-Busch InBev   Belgium   Consumer Goods
24 Royal Dutch Shell   United Kingdom   Oil & Gas
25 Novartis AG   Switzerland   Health Care
45 NovoNordisk A/S   Denmark   Health Care
49 HSBC Holdings PLC   United Kingdom   Financials
(iii) journeyman (n, etymology):
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... eymen#journeyman__3

(c) "A European firms occupies the top spot in only one out of 24 global sectors (Nestlé in food). European leaders are typically much smaller than their rivals across the Atlantic. Unilever's market value is three-fifths of Procter & Gamble's, Airbus is about half as big as Boeing and Siemens is a third of the size of General Electric. Deutsche Bank's market value is a tenth of JPMorgan Chase's. Walmart is ten times bigger than Tesco or Carrefour, two of Europe's largest supermarket chains.  Europe and America have economies of a similar size, but the aggregate market value of the top 500 European firms is half that of the top 500 American firms. Aggregate profits are 50-65% smaller, depending on the [accounting] measure used. * * * What went wrong? Slow growth in Europe has not helped, and a strong dollar has made American firms’ domestic operations more valuable. But four other factors also explain the [European] slide."
(d) "Shell, now the continent's most powerful energy company"

Not BP, Total (of France), or Russian firms.