Nestlé tops list as most valuable Swiss company

Nestlé, who else? Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos (r) drinks a coffee with Nespresso CEO Jean-Marc Duvoisin in Bogota in November. Keystone

With a market value of $264 billion (CHF258 billion), Nestlé has claimed second place in Europe behind Royal Dutch Shell ($276 billion) in global rankings published by consultancy EY on Friday. 

However, that only put them in 17^th and 18^th place respectively, well below the global ranking leaders: the Silicon Valley tech giants Apple ($876 billion), Alphabet ($733 billion) and Microsoft ($661 billion). 

+ Read how Nestlé sets target for increasing profit margins

EY reported that Chinese companies had muscled their way past European firms, with some entering the top ten for the first time. The internet services company Tencent Holdings ($484 billion) and e-commerce firm Alibaba Group ($444 billion) were ranked 7^th and 8^th, having doubled their market capitalisation in 2017. 

Pharma  

Switzerland’s two big pharma companies, Roche and Novartis, were the only other Swiss firms to make it into EY’s top 100. Roche came 31^st with a value of $213 billion while cross-town rival Novartis was six places lower with $195 billion. 

The country’s biggest banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, only managed 153^rd and 279^th positions respectively. 

Overall, the cumulative market value of the world’s 100 most expensive companies rose by almost 26% to $20.2 trillion over the past 12 months.