Saudi Aramco's capitalization exceeded national GDP

By Rhod Mackenzie

The companies with the highest capitalisation in relation to national GDP are located in Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Argentina. Saudi Aramco, the Saudi oil and gas company, is the only company from the G20 countries whose indicator exceeds the country’s GDP, according to RIA Novosti’s calculations based on open statistical data.
At the beginning of this week, the capitalisation of Saudi Aramco was 1.7 times higher than the GDP of Saudi Arabia, amounting to $1.933 trillion. The closest competitors, represented by the Korean Samsung ($379.9 billion) and the Argentine trading giant MercadoLibre ($82.7 billion), are unable to match such business scales. The capitalisation of the former represents 22% of South Korea’s GDP, while the latter represents 14% of Argentina's GDP.
The top five in terms of capitalisation also included the French Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (13% of France's GDP, or $419.4 billion), the American Microsoft (11% of US GDP, or $3.022 trillion) and the South African technology giant Naspers (10%, or $36.2 billion).
The world's largest mining company, BHP Group, is worth 8% of Australia's GDP, or $142.4 billion, the same figure as Japan's Toyota ($315.2 billion). The British AstraZeneca ($236.8 billion) has slightly less (7%). The Canadian bank Royal Bank of Canada ($143.2 billion) and the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries ($231.1 billion) each have 6% of the market share.
The largest businesses in the rest of the G20 countries were unable to overcome the 5% barrier. This is the ratio of capitalisation to GDP of the Indonesian credit institution Bank Central Asia ($75.4 billion), the German technology company SAP ($214.1 billion) and the Brazilian oil giant Petrobras ($108 billion).
The capitalisation of two more credit institutions – the Turkish bank QNB Finansbank ($42.5 billion) and the Russian Sberbank ($72.3 billion) – accounts for 4% of the national GDP. Italian automobile giant Ferrari ($77.5 billion) and Mexican retailer Walmex ($66.8 billion) each have 3%. And 2% – from the Chinese technology giant Tencent ($444 billion).
Outside the G20, another country has a GDP below the capitalisation of its largest company, the Danish medical giant Novo Nordisk. The company's capitalisation is $567.56 billion, which is 1.4 times more than the country's GDP.