Sales of the 500 largest Brazilian companies already reach almost US$ 1 trillion
Exame - 07/08/2008
In its 35th edition, the BEST AND LARGEST annual report of EXAME magazine shows that never in the history of Brazil have the companies sold, profited, hired personnel and paid so many taxes. The total income of the 500 largest companies went from 630 billion dollars in 1998 to 970 billion dollars in 2007. Only last year, the sales grew 68 billion dollars compared to 2006, number superior to the annual income of the American giant of the aviation sector, Boeing. The payment of taxes also followed this evolution. In 1998, the 500 largest companies paid the government 88.3 billion dollars. Last year, this amount went up to 144.5 billion dollars, equivalent to 40% of the tax revenue of the country in the period. And, for the first time, Brazil has more than 200 companies with income above 1 billion dollars. Ten years ago, only 94 companies had incomes nearly one billion. Between 2006 and 2007, 61 companies entered the group of billionaire companies. It is not surprising that Petrobrás has remained as the largest company of the country. But the growth of its income is impressive, going from 14 billion dollars (1973) to 101 billion dollars in 2007, becoming the sixth largest oil company of the world. In second place comes BR Distribuidora, which stayed in the 7th place in the ranking for 35 years. Its income grew from 4.7 billion dollars to 31 billion dollars. The bronze medal goes to Volkswagen. Its income, which amounted 8.2 billion dollars, reached the mark of 17 billion dollars in 2007. 35 years ago, the engines of the economy were the sectors of Consumption Goods, the Car Industry and wholesale. Today, the largest is the Energy sector (203.4 billion dollars, compared to 16 billion dollars), followed by the Car Industry (111 billion dollars, against 37 billion dollars), Consumption Goods (101.4 billion dollars, against 37 billion dollars) and Wholesale (97.4 billion dollars, against 31 billion dollars).