Toyota is only non-U.S. company in top ten — BMW is most admired European company

London: 23 February 2005:—FORTUNE announced today that General Electric holds the No. 1 spot on the annual list of the World's Most Admired Companies, displacing Wal-Mart, which held the top spot last year. "Under chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, the $134.2 billion industrial and financial behemoth (often referred to as the world's most valuable company) has regained the momentum it lost after Jack Welch's retirement in 2001," says writer Paola Hjelt in her introduction to the list.

The list is based on a survey of 10,000 corporate directors, executives, and analysts at more than 350 companies in 30 industry groups. Respondents rank the companies in their industry based on nine criteria, such as innovation, financial soundness, and social responsibility.Ê Hay Group, which has conducted the research for the World's Most Admired Companies list since 1997, is a global human resources and organizational consulting firm with 78 offices in 43 countries. They also choose an All-Star list from the entire pool of companies. Rounding out the top ten are Wal-Mart Stores (No. 2); Dell (No. 3); Microsoft (No. 4); Toyota Motor (No. 5); Procter & Gamble (No. 6); Johnson & Johnson (No. 7); FedEx (No. 8); IBM (No. 9); and Berkshire Hathaway (No. 10). The list and related stories appear in the March 7 issue of FORTUNE, available on newsstands TK and at www.fortune.com

"Profits are not all it takes to be admired," says Hjelt. "Companies also have to demonstrate superior management, industry leadership, technological prowess, and innovativeness. This year's World's Most Admired Companies stand out in all these areas." Points of interest on the list include:

• U.S. companies continue to dominate. Of the 52 companies on the All-Star list, 35 are based in the U.S., and of the 30 industry groups surveyed, 24 were led by U.S. companies.

• More non-U.S. companies made it onto the All-Star list than ever before, including such newcomers as Samsung Electronics at No. 39, the first Korean company to make the list; Siemens, the German electronics and manufacturing giant at No. 43; and Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical company at No. 48.


• Toyota moved to the No. 5 spot, the highest-ranking non-U.S. company on the list.

• A number of companies made significant gains. BMW moved up from No. 15 to No. 11, and is the highest-ranking European company on the list. Honda rose five places to No. 19, and BP rose five places to No. 22.


• Non-U.S. companies also led a total of two more industry groups than they did last year, with BASF, the German chemical company, ousting PPG Industries for the No. 1 position in the chemicals industry; French construction giant Vinci pushing ahead of Fluor in the construction industry group; and Australia's BHP Billiton taking the top spot away from Occidental Petroleum in the mining and crude-oil category.


• Several companies fell off the All-Star list, including Royal Dutch/Shell, which significantly overstated its oil and gas reserves; American International Group, which agreed to pay $126 million in penalties after being accused of giving kickbacks to insurance brokers and inflating its financial statements; and Merck, which recalled its $2.5 billion blockbuster painkiller Vioxx.

• Unilever, Eli Lilly, and GlaxoSmithKline also disappeared from the All-Star list, and such perennials as Disney and Coca-Cola, both of which had highly public management disputes, suffered big drops.

• Of the 30 industries, nine have new leaders: BASF (chemicals); PepsiCo (consumer food products); FedEx (delivery); RWE (energy); Vinci (engineering, construction); Alcoa (metals); BHP Billiton (mining, crude-oil production); Home Depot (specialty retailers); and Verizon (telecommunications).

• The highest-ranking Chinese company by composite score was Shanghai Baosteel, the country's largest steelmaker and a newcomer to the FORTUNE Global 500 last year. It ranked No. 183 among all companies and fifth in non-Japan Asia. Only two other Chinese companies were included in the survey, China National Petroleum and Sinopec.

More detailed profiles of all the World's Most Admired Companies, including how they stack up against peers in innovation, talent, and more; a breakdown of the list by country; and the 2005 list of America's Most Admired Companies can be found at www.fortune.com.

FORTUNE is the global leader in business, known for its unrivalled access to industry leaders and decision-makers throughout the world. FORTUNE's European edition, based in London, is dedicated to covering European business from a trademark global perspective. With a European circulation of 105,000 and a worldwide circulation of 1,020,000, FORTUNE is one of the fastest growing magazines in the world. Founded in 1930, FORTUNE has grown to a worldwide circulation of over one million and a readership in excess of five million.

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For further information please contact:
Emma Gilpin
Director of Public Affairs
FORTUNE Europe
T: +44 (0) 207 322 1193
M: + 44 (0) 7802 955 243
Email: emma_gilpin@timeandfortune.com

Jo Crosby
Public Affairs Assistant
FORTUNE Europe
T: + 44 (0) 207 322 1103
M: + 44 (0) 781 3185 975