shenzhen-based property developer, vanke, ranked 356th on the latest fortune global 500 list published by fortune magazine wednesday. it marks the first time the company made the list, the nanfang daily reported.
the fortune global 500 list is an annual ranking of the world's largest corporations by revenue. companies with a yearly revenue of at least us$20.9 billion are eligible to make the list this year, which is lower than last year's us$23.7 billion requirement.
vanke's report showed that the company's annual revenue reached 184.3 billion yuan (us$27.55 billion) last year, with a net profit of over 18 billion yuan. the company has the second-highest annual revenue among the four chinese real estate enterprises on the list this year.
the company's sales volume amounted to 147.6 billion yuan from january to may this year, making it certain that the company will become the first chinese property developer with an annual sales volume exceeding 300 billion yuan.
vanke's founder and chairman of the board, wang shi, said he was notified that the company had made the list when he attended a forum in hangzhou in late june, although the result wasn't officially announced at the time.
apart from vanke, there are four fortune global 500 enterprises based in shenzhen, including ping an insurance group, huawei, china merchants bank and amer international group. all these enterprises have risen into the top 200 enterprises on this year's list, while ping an insurance group ranked 41st, an increase of 55 places from last year.
china added four new companies to the list this year in taking 110 spots. based on the current exchange rate between u.s. dollars and rmb, a chinese enterprise's yearly revenue should reach 139 billion yuan before qualifying for the fortune global list.
several other shenzhen-based companies, such as tencent, china resources vanguard and zte, achieved an annual revenue of over 100 billion yuan last year. china resources (holdings) co., ltd. and the electric carmaker byd both had an annual revenue of over 80 billion yuan last year.
tencent is most likely to be the next shenzhen enterprise to make the list. its yearly revenue was 102.8 billion yuan last year, with a year-on-year growth of 30 percent. if the company can maintain the same growth rate, its yearly revenue is expected to approach 133.6 billion yuan next year, according to the report.
shenzhen rolled out new measures to support local enterprises in march. enterprises that enter the fortune global 500 list for the first time will be awarded 30 million yuan by the government, and those on the list of china's top 500 companies for the first time will be awarded 10 million yuan.
shenzhen's party chief ma xingrui said hopefully there will be eight to 10 fortune global 500 enterprises based in shenzhen by 2020, meaning there may be another three to five new shenzhen-based companies on the list in the next four years.
zha zhenxiang, a shenzhen polytechnic professor, said the government should make detailed plans to support certain local companies that have the potential to become fortune global 500 enterprises. he said the government should also encourage innovation and develop innovative platforms for companies.
wang lizong, president of the guangdong high-tech industry chamber of commerce believes some shenzhen-based technology enterprises will make the fortune global 500 list in the future. he said the technological innovation can benefit the environment and really make a difference for the city.
