India’s top five companies by sales operate in the petroleum industry. So do three of the top five companies by profits

It will take some doing to topple Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the 17th largest petroleum company in the world, as the biggest company in India. Consider this: IOC’s net sales of Rs 1,08,699 crore in 2002-2003 is 80 per cent more than that of the No. 2 private sector petrochemicals behemoth, Reliance Industries, at Rs 60,387 crore.

It will, however, take some gigantic efforts to oust the oil companies which, for the past three years remain the country’s top five corporations.

For IOC, the domination comes owing to a net sales growth of 7.2 per cent in 2002-2003, against a fall of 8.6 per cent in 2001-2002. Sales grew at Reliance Industries by 12.7 per cent.

Among the top five, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) retained their last year’s ranks. HPCL is third (net sales of Rs 48,459.22 crore), BPCL fourth (Rs 43,185.42 crore) and ONGC fifth (Rs 32,992 crore) in the pecking order.

One surprise entry in the top 10 is Kochi Refineries. The oil firm notched up sales of Rs 9,233.47 crore, a 59.1 per cent growth over sales in the previous year. Another public sector undertaking, IBP, has been relegated to the 13th position with net sales of Rs 8,597.99 crore.

Steel giant Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and engineering major Larsen & Toubro retained their positions (number six with sales of Rs 17,050.41 crore and number 9 with sales of Rs 9351 crore, respectively). GAIL India stepped on the gas, rising a notch to the seventh position, pushing fast moving consumer goods major Hindustan Lever a position down to eighth. 

Car major Maruti Udyog, which was first among unlisted companies last year, stood 16th among listed companies this time round. This was in the wake of a 2.1 per cent rise in turnover to Rs 7,337 crore.

Two-wheeler major Hero Honda improved its position from 22nd to 20th, while peer Bajaj Auto remained at the 25th position. Tata group company Tata Steel also bettered its rank to 12 from 14 while Tata Motors retained the 11th position. Group entities Tata Power and VSNL, however, slid down the totem pole. Tata Power tripped to 26 from 24, while VSNL plunged to the 24th position from the 15th last year.

Aditya Birla group company Hindalco, which acquired the copper business of another group firm Indo Gulf Corporation, jumped to the 21st position from the 37th, but the group’s flagship Grasim Industries’ remained at 23.

Information technology major Wipro’s rank slipped from 26 to 27, while Infosys Technolo-gies’ moved up the rung from 36 to 30. While the former reported a 16.6 per cent rise in revenue to Rs 3,984.81 crore, the latter clocked a 39.1 per cent revenue growth to Rs 3,622.69 crore.

The buoyant market conditions in the steel industry in 2002-2003 led to two companies moving into the top 50 rank. Ispat Industries rose to the 35th position from 53rd, while Jindal Vijaynagar rose to the 44th slot from the 55th. Likewise, Jindal Iron & Steel’s position improved from 98 to 69 and Jindal Steel & Power’s from 175 to 107.

In terms of profits, ONGC remained at the top of the heap like last year, posting a monster Rs 10,529.33 crore in profit, – that is, a third of its sales was pure profit.

IOC was the second most profitable entity at Rs 6,098.32 crore. It relegated last year’s number two, Reliance Industries (Rs 4,104.31 crore), to the third slot. Hindustan Lever was number four, followed by GAIL, HPCL, ITC, BPCL, Neyveli Lignite and Tata Steel – in that order.