Gazprom is now the world’s third biggest company in market capitalisation terms. This is indicated in the global study, carried out by the Japanese Namura Securities investment corporation. Its results were published here on Monday according to Itar-Tass.
The study showed that the total market cost of the Gazprom floated shares had reached 341.8 billion U.S. dollars by June 13. This is 8.3 billions more than last year, when this Russian gas company was only seventh biggest in the world. Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller stated two weeks ago that his company would be the world’s biggest within the next 7- 8 years.
The first two places are also held by oil and gas corporations. The Exxon Mobil, which had pushed down to second place the PetroChina Company, is now in the lead with 466.8 billion U.S. dollars. It is worth noting that the capitalisation of both companies had decreased last year by 52.8 and 345.1 billion U.S. dollars respectively due to the general slump of stock markets in the United States and China.
Analysts note that, as seen against the background of growing energy indicators, on the one hand, and destabilisation of the world financial system – on the other, it is precisely the energy sector that holds first place in the market capitalisation rating of companies, whereas, some leading financial and technology companies are on the downgrade compared to it.
Particularly remarkable in this respect are the results, achieved by Gazprom and by the PetroBras Oil Corporation of Brazil with its 275.1 billion U.S. dollars. It has moved up from twelfth to fifth place and is now somewhere in-between the U.S. General Electric with 291 billions and Microsoft – 272. 5 billions. The two, as a matter of fact, had ranked first and second in the world as regards capitalisation in 2002.