In Global Survey of Companies, Germany places 40th

Germany's top companies ranked 40th, 53rd, 85th, and 100th in the annual survey by the Financial Times newspaper of the world's top 500 companies by market capitalization. While American companies such as GE, Microsoft, Exxon Mobil and Citigroup took the top slots, German companies fared better than usual this year. Deutsche Telekom jumped from 56th place to 40th this year, and was the top German firm in the ranking, largely thanks to CEO Kai-Uwe Ricke's reform program at the once troubled company, which is valued at almost $80 billion. Among German firms, engineering giant Siemens came in second, ranked at 53rd, followed by business software maker SAP at 85th place and energy concern E.ON coming in at number 100. Although E.ON only improved its position slightly over last year, the other German entries made substantial jumps in a positive direction. Two other German firms in the top 500, Deutsche Post and Münchener Rück, improved their rankings this year by over 100 places.