Thu Jul 11 18:50:07 GMT+02:00 2002 

BusinessWeek Magazine ranks Novartis among the world's most valuable companies. The July 15th issue features the 2002 Global 1000, a ranking of top companies from 23 countries according to market capitalization. Using data from Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc. in Geneva, BusinessWeek ranks Novartis 17th with US $124 billion, moving up ten spots from its rank of 27th in 2001. Among Swiss companies, Novartis ranks first, followed by Nestle, Roche Holding, UBS, and the Credit Suisse Group. In the health care industry, Novartis joins Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Glaxo Smith Kline, and Merck in the top five.

In all, twenty Swiss companies ranked among the top 1000. Of the top five Swiss companies, only Credit Suisse fell in the rankings, from 76th to 86th with US $44 billion. Nestle moved up 15 points to number 30 with US $96 billion. With US $73 billion, Roche ranked 43rd, up 13 points from a year ago, while UBS went from 57th in 2001 to 47th in 2002 with US $69.5 billion. Additionally, Serono and Syngenta ranked 474 and 626 respectively. The Zurich Financial Group fell from 173rd in 2001 to 212th in 2002, while ABB fell 200 points in the ranking to 418th.

The top 25 of the rankings is dominated by U.S. companies. General Electric tops the list with US $309 billion, followed by Microsoft (US $275 billion) and Exxon Mobil (US $271 billion). According to Business Week, U.S. corporations account for more than half the capitalization of the entire ranking. In pharmaceuticals, the magazine credits the success of Johnson & Johnson, which jumped from 21st to 9th, to the company's decision to build up the prescription drug side of its business.


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