NO JOKE: EMBATTLED ENRON IS FIFTH ON FORTUNE 500 LIST
By JESSICA SOMMAR
nypost.com
April 1, 2002 -- Despite bankruptcy, scandal-ridden Enron managed to wrangle fifth place in the much-anticipated Fortune 500 rankings for 2001.
Wal-Mart topped the annual list with revenues of $219.8 billion and is the first service company to do so. The Fortune 500 was limited to manufacturing until 1995.
Wal-Mart took the top slot from Exxon Mobil, which came in second with revenues of $191.6 billion.
General Motors, which held the top slot for 15 years until 2000, came in third with revenues of $177.2 billion. Ford Motor Co. was fourth, with $162.2 billion.
Enron's fall from grace in December shook stock markets and put its independent auditors, Arthur Andersen, on the brink of extinction.
Yet the Houston-based energy trader still beat out stellar performers such as General Electric (No. 6), Citigroup (No. 7), ChevronTexaco (No. 8) and IBM (No. 9).
The disgraced company that has left thousands without jobs and retirement money and whose leaders have refused to testify before Congress actually jumped two places. Enron ranked seventh in 2000.
And it did so on only nine months of reported earnings.
Enron has yet to release its fourth-quarter earnings report, but even with restated earnings of $139 billion, it pushed far ahead of the pack.
Bankruptcy doesn't keep a company off the Fortune 500, Carol Loomis writes in this week's Fortune.
Loomis notes that accounting rules for energy trading contracts allow companies to count gross as opposed to net revenues on trades, which helped plump up Enron's numbers.
It's also why Mirant Corp., an energy trader spun off by Southern Co., was the highest-ranked new company last year, debuting at No. 52.
AOL Time Warner had revenues of $38.2 billion, making it the lists's largest media company.
Profits for the top 500 companies fell 53 percent last year to $206 billion - the largest drop in profits since rankings began.
Total revenues did grow, up 3 percent to $7.4 trillion, compared to $7.2 trillion in 2000.
The list of the 500 largest publicly held companies has been compiled annually since 1955 by the editors of Fortune. |
