ICBC tops Chinese listed firms in profitability: Report

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) was the most profitable Chinese listed company by generating a profit of 391.79 billion yuan ($56.6 billion) last year, a new listing indicated.

This is the 11th year in a row for ICBC to rank as the most profitable listed Chinese firm by Warton Economic Institute, which published the 2020 list on Monday in Shanghai.

The nation's top 500 public companies created a combined profit of 4.9 trillion yuan in 2019, up 10.83 percent from the previous year, which accounted for 95.33 percent of all firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen, according to the list.

In the meantime, the 500 top corporations reported total revenue of 38 trillion yuan, taking up 75.55 percent of the revenue achieved by all companies listed in the two bourses.

"These companies' revenue took up 38.48 percent of China's GDP of 99 trillion yuan, showing the top companies are the major forces and backbone of China's economic development," said Zhang Ye, a researcher with the Warton Economic Institute, a Shanghai-based organization focused on researching macro economy, regional economy and enterprises analysis.

"Amid the new generation of industrial revolution, whoever takes a lead in technological innovation, research and development, whoever makes the best development in technology, education, culture and entertainment, life and health, would be the world's economic center for the future," said Shen Hanyao, president of Warton Economic Institute The list found that Beijing has the most listed enterprises with 74, followed by Guangdong province with 71, Shanghai with 52, Zhejiang province with 48, Jiangsu province with 43 and Shandong province with 27.

This is the 20th consecutive year for the institute to publish a list on the most profitable Chinese-listed companies.