It is no longer enough for the top 100: With a market value of 121 billion US dollars, the most valuable German group only makes it to 106th place among the most expensive companies. Overall, Europe is continuing the downward trend that has been going on for years.
There is no longer a German company among the 100 most valuable listed companies in the world. Instead, the dominance of US corporations continues – you won’t even find a European company in the top 10, according to an analysis by the auditing and consulting firm EY, which examines the market capitalization of the world’s highest-rated companies every six months.
Nine of the ten most expensive companies in the world are based in the USA. Of the top 100, only 15 are headquartered in Europe and 19 in Asia. According to EY calculations, the most valuable European company is the French luxury goods group LVMH in 15th place. The most valuable company in the world is still the iPhone manufacturer Apple.
According to the EY analysis, the highest-rated German group is the software provider SAP, which ranks 106th with a market value of $121 billion. Siemens, Deutsche Telekom and the newcomer Porsche made it to places 116, 130 and 145. The industrial gases group Linde, which has had its headquarters in Ireland since the merger with Praxair, occupies 59th place in the global ranking.
The importance of Europe on the world stock exchanges has been declining for years. Before the financial crisis, ie at the end of 2007, 46 of the 100 most valuable companies in the world were from Europe. While there were still seven German companies among the top 100 at the end of 2007, there were still two at the end of 2021.
“In view of the continued significant importance of German companies for the global economy, Germany is clearly underrepresented on the world’s stock exchanges,” said Henrik Ahlers, CEO of EY. “But it’s not the successes of the past that count on the stock exchanges, but future prospects. And there – we have to admit this self-critically – we have so far failed to prove that Germany will play a decisive role in shaping the global economy of the future and also in the digital economy of tomorrow has an important say. We are experiencing fundamental upheavals – with the rules currently being made by American and Asian IT companies and the impression that Europe is only watching from the sidelines.”
All in all, most of the top companies on the world stock exchanges went downhill this year. According to EY, the 100 highest-rated companies alone lost a total of 7.2 trillion US dollars in market capitalization over the course of the year. Technology groups were particularly affected, with their stock market value falling by 33 percent. The US giants Tesla, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon alone lost 4.6 trillion dollars in value.
“The sharp rise in interest rates, the war in Ukraine and rising energy prices worldwide – all these developments have left their mark on world stock markets. At the same time, disillusionment has spread in relation to the technology sector, which had gained massively in value during the pandemic “, says Ahlers. Accordingly, highly rated growth companies in particular have recently come under pressure – the number of tech companies in the top 100 ranking fell to 21 from 28 over the course of the year.
