Most profitable companies in Europe: Switzerland, above all

Swiss companies are at the top of the list of the most profitable companies in Europe: Roche and Nestlé are in the Top 10, ranked first and third respectively, according to the EC consulting firm.

In the top 100 companies worldwide, there are eight Swiss groups: in addition to Roche – with an Ebit of €12.9 billion recorded in 2016 – and Nestlé we can find Novartis (12th place), ABB (69th), LafargeHolcim ( 72th), Richemont (88th), Swisscom (96th), and Syngenta (98th).

Between american companies, Apple has achieved operating profit of $ 60 billion last year, as equal as the five most profitable European companies.
According to the study, which considered the 600 (300 + 300) largest groups listed in Europe and the United States, 30% of American companies are on average more profitable than those of the Old Continent. Their operating margins last year were 12.7% (11.9% in 2015) compared with 9.8% (9.6% in 2015) for European companies.

"One of the reasons why the Old Continent companies have on average a lower profitability is due to the breakdown of sectors," says Marcel Stalder, EC CEO Geneva, quoted in a press release. In Europe, large groups are more present in "traditional" activities.

On the contrary, US big companies are particularly present in telecommunications and information technology as well as pharmaceutical and biotechnology, even better than Europe's for turnover: the first recorded an average growth rate of 1.2%, against a fall of 1.6%.

With regard to the current financial year, EC considers that Europe should take advantage for the euro's weakness over the last few months. For Stalder, companies with internationalization strategies will advance, underlined in the statement.

According to the consulting company, the "strong" franc will remain an obstacle for the export industry for Switzerland.