Reliance Industries topples IOC to take 1st spot on Fortune India 500 list

New Delhi: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has toppled state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) from the spot it occupied for a decade and has become India's largest company on the Fortune India 500 list 2019. Reliance Industries is also the first privately-held company and the only other company to become India's largest corporation, apart from IOC, for the first time in 10 years, Fortune India said. Indian Oil was on the second spot in the list.

Reliance Industries posted 41.5% jump in revenue in FY19

The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate posted a revenue of Rs 5.81 lakh crore in 2018-19, registering a 41.5 percent rise. This was 8.4 percent more than what IOC posted in financial year 2018-19. IOC posted a growth of 26.6 percent in sales at Rs 5.36 lakh crore in the same year. RIL's profit for 2018-19 was also more than double that of IOC, at Rs 39,588 crore. "Over the past 10 years, the oil-to-retail conglomerate's profit has been an average three times higher than that of IOC. The highest it touched compared to IOC was up to 4.8 times, in FY15 when RIL's profit was Rs 23,566 crore and the public sector major's stood at Rs 4,912 crore," Fortune India said.

ONGC ranked third

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) held on to the spot it occupied in 2018 — third. It was followed by State Bank of India, Tata Motors and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL). There have been no changes in the rankings of these companies between 2018 and 2019.

Coal India on 9th spot

While Rajesh Exports climbed one position to be ranked 7th on the 2019 list, Tata Steel, Coal India, Tata Consultancy Services and Larsen & Toubro occupied the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th, respectively. Overall, the revenue of the Fortune India 500 companies in the 2019 list grew 9.53 percent, while profit rose 11.8 percent, Fortune India said. At least 57 companies were taken off the list for reasons that included consolidation within the public sector banks, public sector undertakings, as well as the private sector. Fortune India said the oil and gas sector (with eight companies) accounted for 22.3 percent of the total revenue of the 500 companies, followed by banking with 15.88 percent of the total.

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