Sinopec still No. 1 on China's top 500 companies list

Sinopec, Asia's largest oil refiner, remains China's highest-grossing company, according to an annual list of the country's top 500 firms seen on Monday.

Sinopec retained top spot for the third straight year with revenue exceeding 1.06 trillion yuan (140.5 billion dollars) last year, said the list by the China Enterprise Federation.

The company was the only one on the list, now in its sixth year, to exceed one trillion yuan in revenue.

All companies in the top 10 are state-owned enterprises, underlining the continued prevalence of state control over Chinese industry despite decades of liberalisation.

They included two oil companies, two electric utilities, three commercial banks, two telecom operators, and one insurance company.

Hong Kong-listed Gome Electrical Appliances Holding, China's largest home appliance chain, was the only privately-held listed company among the top 50 companies, moving up to number 37 from last year's 53rd spot.

Huang Guangyu, the founder of Gome, was named China's richest person last year by Forbes magazine with a net worth of 2.3 billion dollars.

The official China Daily said on Monday the revenue of firms on the list increased by 23.7 percent from a year earlier while profits jumped 25.9 percent largely due to continued growth from mergers and acquisitions.

A total of 131 companies on the list merged or acquired 408 other businesses last year, the report said.

However, the profitability of firms on the China list still lags behind that of the world's top 500 companies compiled annually by Forbes, recording a profit margin of 4.72 percent compared with the global giants' 7.32 percent on average, the paper added.