ExxonMobil Corp. for the second year in a row tops a Forbes magazine list as the world’s most profitable company, with $44.9 billion in income in 2012, but its reign as the largest publicly traded company has been usurped by a Chinese bank.

After gaining the spot last year, the world’s largest oil and gas company fell to into fifth place among the biggest publicly traded entities, bumped by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which grabbed the No. 1 position for the first time. China Construction Bank (CCB) moved up 11 spots from a year earlier to slip into the No. 2 position, passing JPMorgan Chase, which moved down into the No. 3 slot. General Electric also lost one position from a year ago and is ranked the No. 4.

The ranking is the first in which Chinese firms equaled those of U.S. enterprises; each had four in the top 10. ICBC and CCB climbed on double-digit growth in both sales and profits in 2012, but their annual profit growth rates were the slowest rates since they went public, according to Forbes. UK-based HSBC Holdings at No. 6, and European energy giant Royal Dutch Shell plc, No. 7, joined Agricultural Bank of China, No. 8, and PetroChina Ltd., which was tied with Berkshire Hathaway at No. 9.

“A company needs to qualify for at least one of the lists in order to be eligible for the final Global 2000 ranking,” according to Forbes. “This year 3,400 companies were needed to fill out the four lists of 2000, each company qualifying for at least one of the lists.”

A review of the four metrics indicates that energy companies are doing well, no matter how the data is diced and sliced.

ExxonMobil claimed the No. 2 position for market value at $400.4 billion, second only to Apple. Chevron Corp., ranked No. 13 for public companies, has a market value of $232.5 billion. Shell, No. 7, was the No. 2 sales leader behind Wal-Mart Stores with $467.2 billion in 2012. BP plc, No. 18, reported $370.9 billion in sales. PetroChina Ltd. was ranked No. 9 among top public companies; it had $18.3 billion in profits in 2012, while Russia’s OAO Gazprom, No. 17, had $40.6 billion.

The biggest newcomers to the list, through initial public offerings or spin-offs, included No. 130 Phillips 66, which was spun-off from ConocoPhillips, No. 73, last May.

The magazine’s Global 2000 list of publicly traded companies was compiled with Interactive Data, Thomson Reuters Fundamentals and Worldscope databases via FactSet Research Systems. The biggest companies were screened for four lists: sales, profits, assets and market value. The value calculation is as of March 15 closing prices, including all common shares outstanding. Each of the lists has a minimum cutoff value of $3.89 billion in sales, $232.2 million in profits, $7.85 billion in assets, and $4.25 billion in market value.

Of the 2,000 firms, the United States dominates with 543 members, followed by Japan with 251 and China with 136. The 2,000 companies account for $38 trillion in global revenues, $2.43 trillion in profit, $159 trillion in assets, and $39 trillion in market value. Together, they employ an estimated 87 million people worldwide.

©Copyright 2013Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.