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Southern Finance Omnimedia reporter Ding Li reports from Guangzhou

On July 25, the 2024 Fortune China 500 list was announced, with 73 Guangdong companies on the list, three more than last year. The total number of Guangdong companies on the list still ranks among the top among all provinces and cities in the country.

From the perspective of the structure of Guangdong enterprises in the list, industry still accounts for a considerable proportion, especially manufacturing, which plays a significant "pillar role"; and 7 enterprises are listed in the "40 Most Profitable Companies in China's Top 500" by Fortune China. From the perspective of geographical distribution, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are still the main sources of enterprises on the list, and more leading enterprises from cities in the Pearl River Delta have entered the list.

"The list is mainly composed of leading enterprises in various industries. The strong development of leading enterprises is of great significance to the long-term steady development of Guangdong's economy." Chen Gang, deputy director of the Institute of Modern Industries of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, believes that these enterprises have strong resource integration and scientific and technological research and development capabilities. They are not only important carriers for cultivating new quality productivity, promoting scientific and technological innovation, and realizing the industrialization and transformation of scientific and technological achievements, but also the backbone force for countries and regions to enhance the security and resilience of the industrial chain and supply chain, and an important supporting force to ensure the stable and healthy development of the national and local economy and society.

Guangzhou and Shenzhen together account for nearly 80% of the total number of Guangdong companies on the list

This year, 73 Guangdong enterprises are listed in the latest Fortune China 500 list, 3 more than last year, and the total number of listed enterprises is the highest in the past five years. In recent years, more and more Guangdong enterprises have entered the list, which shows that the development of Guangdong's leading enterprises continues to improve, and the leading enterprises' role as the "ballast stone" of the economy remains stable.

Among them, private enterprises have made important contributions to this list. This year, five private enterprises, including Huawei Investment Holding Co., Ltd., Tencent Holdings Co., Ltd., BYD Co., Ltd., Vanke Co., Ltd., and Midea Group Co., Ltd., entered the top 100 of the list, accounting for about half of Guangdong enterprises.

"Private enterprises are an important trump card for Guangdong's economic development." Chen Gang said that Guangdong's strong market economic vitality, solid industrial development foundation, competitive business environment and strong external market expansion capabilities have provided fertile ground for the development of the private economy and are an important guarantee for the development of the private economy.

Data shows that as of the end of 2023, the total number of private economic entities in Guangdong has exceeded 17 million, ranking first in the country, accounting for more than 96% of the total number of business entities in the province; the private economy has brought more than 50% of the province's GDP, about 60% of taxes, more than 70% of technological innovation results and more than 80% of new jobs.

The structure of the private economy also affects the number of enterprises from each province on the list to a certain extent. For many years, the number of enterprises in Guangdong ranked second in the country, second only to Beijing, which is closely related to the fact that the headquarters of central enterprises are concentrated in Beijing.

From the perspective of regional distribution, the leading enterprises are still concentrated in the economically developed Pearl River Delta region. In particular, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have 22 and 36 enterprises on the list respectively, accounting for nearly 80% of the total number of Guangdong enterprises on the list. Shenzhen is still the biggest "winner" this time. Among the top ten Guangdong enterprises on the list, Shenzhen has 6, far ahead of other regions; Guangzhou has become the city with the largest increase in the number of listed enterprises, with 5 more Guangzhou enterprises on the list than last year.

Among the other cities in the Pearl River Delta, Foshan and Huizhou have 5 and 3 companies on the list respectively, Zhuhai and Dongguan have 2 companies each, and Zhongshan and Jiangmen have 1 company each. Wen's Food Group Co., Ltd. from Yunfu has become the only Fortune 500 company in the eastern, western and northern regions of Guangdong. The leading companies still show obvious regional imbalance.

In this regard, Chen Gang said that the comprehensive strength of urban development is an important factor in the rapid growth and development of enterprises.

In addition, from the perspective of business operations and profitability, the overall development of Guangdong's leading enterprises is relatively stable. Among the 11 Guangdong enterprises in the top 100, 7 of them achieved positive growth in operating income and profits. Among them, Huawei's profit increased by 132.4%, followed by BYD with a profit growth rate of 71.7%.

At the same time, according to Fortune China, among the 40 most profitable companies in the Fortune China 500 in 2024, 7 are from Guangdong; but among the 40 companies with the highest net profit margins, only 3 are from Guangdong. This means that the profitability of Guangdong companies still needs to be further improved.

Enterprises in emerging industries are "rising rapidly"

Judging from the industry distribution of Guangdong enterprises in the Fortune China 500 list, the structure is more diversified.

Chen Gang's analysis found that the business scope of the 73 Guangdong enterprises covers insurance services, home appliances, energy services, automobile manufacturing, electronic information services, finance, logistics, biomedicine, infrastructure and other fields. They have a wide range of industry coverage, strong industrial integration and penetration capabilities, and have a greater impact on local economic and social development.

Among them, the characteristic of "manufacturing as the leader" is prominent, contributing to the main top 500 Guangdong companies, especially in the pillar industries such as electronic information, home appliances, and automobile manufacturing, the leading companies have a strong development momentum.

Taking automobiles and parts as an example, a total of 27 related companies are on the list nationwide, including BYD, GAC Group, and Xiaopeng Motors in Guangdong. All three are complete vehicle companies with stronger supply chain driving force; Dongguan's China East Automotive Holdings Co., Ltd. is one of the only three automobile retail and service companies on the list.

This year, BYD ranked 40th, 26 places higher than last year, and Xiaopeng Motors advanced three places. Among the three automakers in Guangdong, only GAC Group dropped from 50th place last year to 53rd place.

The change in the ranking of automakers reflects the new energy trend of automobile manufacturing. In the first half of this year, BYD sold a total of 1.6071 million vehicles, ranking first among domestic automakers; while GAC Group is facing greater pressure, with sales of GAC Toyota and GAC Honda falling by 25.8% and 28.28% respectively. Honda has been negotiating with its joint venture partner GAC Group on production cuts, and the transformation of automakers has become a general trend.

In the home appliance industry, Midea and Gree still rank among the top three in this field among the top 500 Chinese companies, and their rankings have both improved; under TCL Group, TCL Technology's ranking has also moved up 4 places, and TCL Industrial has entered the list for the first time and achieved a "high starting point" of 185, making it the second-highest ranked company among the top 500 Guangdong companies newly promoted.

Zhang Zhongxin, director of the Retail and Training Center of TCL Industrial China Marketing Headquarters, told Southern Finance Omnimedia that in recent years, TCL has solved the halo problem in the Mini LED field through technological innovation, greatly improving the picture quality of TVs. The new products are very popular. Last year, Mini LED and ultra-large screen TVs ranked first in sales.

In addition, emerging industries such as new energy and new materials are also gradually emerging.

For example, in the field of new energy, Huizhou Yiwei Lithium Energy Co., Ltd. and Xinwoda Electronics Co., Ltd. ranked 329th and 332nd respectively, with Yiwei Lithium Energy in particular moving up 45 places; Mingyang Smart Energy Group Co., Ltd. was the only company from Zhongshan on the list.

"Thanks to its self-developed typhoon-resistant wind turbines, Ming Yang Group once broke the then-conclusion that 'wind power cannot be developed in China's South China Sea.'" Yi Lingna, vice president of Ming Yang Group and secretary-general of the CEO Office, revealed that Ming Yang Smart currently ranks first in the world in terms of installed offshore wind turbine capacity, and the company will continue to move into the deep sea and use AI to enable energy development.

Among the 14 new Guangdong companies on the list, emerging industries also occupy an important position, such as Shenzhen Inovance Technology Co., Ltd. and Pioneer Technology Group Co., Ltd. The former focuses on industrial automation control and has achieved rapid development in the context of digital transformation; the latter is a global giant in rare metal materials technology.

This year, Guangdong Development proposed to develop five major future industries, such as future materials and future intelligent equipment, and leading enterprises are also the focus of attention. Several future industry cluster cultivation action plans all proposed to "cultivate high-quality backbone enterprises" and "strengthen the leading enterprise group", trying to further drive scientific and technological innovation and industrialization with "chain leaders".

Chen Gang also said that in the future, more companies in emerging industries with good development foundations and more obvious growth rates, such as artificial intelligence, integrated power, low-altitude economy, and industrial robots, will be expected to be included in the list.