The ten most profitable publicly-listed British companies that made it to the Forbes Global 2000 list for 2010 are listed below.
| Rank | Company | Ticker | Industry | Sales ($bil) | Profits ($bil) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BP | BP | Oil & Gas Operations | 239.27 | 16.58 |
| 2 | Barclays | BCS | Banking | 65.91 | 15.17 |
| 3 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | Drugs & Biotechnology | 45.83 | 8.94 |
| 4 | AstraZeneca | AZN | Drugs & Biotechnology | 32.8 | 7.52 |
| 5 | HSBC Holdings | HBC | Banking | 103.74 | 5.83 |
| 6 | Lloyds Banking Group | LYG | Banking | 106.67 | 4.57 |
| 7 | Vodafone | VOD | Telecommunications Services | 58.35 | 4.38 |
| 8 | British Amer Tobacco | BTI | Food, Drink & Tobacco | 22.95 | 4.38 |
| 9 | Rolls-Royce Group | RYCEY.PK | Aerospace & Defense | 16.82 | 3.59 |
| 10 | BG Group | BRGYY.PK | Oil & Gas Operations | 16.5 | 3.5 |
All the firms noted above are also part of the FTSE 100 index. The oil giant BP plc (BP) is the most profitable British company. The current yield on the BP ADR is 7.54%. After the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico BP’s stock has taken a hit falling from over $60 to $43.86 Friday. Oil and Gas company BG Group plc (BRGYY.PK) and Rolls Royce Group (RYCEY.PK) trade on the OTC markets.The three banking stocks in the list can be avoided now due to many uncertainties in that sector.
Drug firms AstraZeneca (AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are excellent long term high yield plays. Currently they pay 8.34% and 5.52% dividends respectively due in part to lower stock prices. British American Tobacco (BTI) revenue totaled about $23B last year. Similar to US tobacco giant Altria Group (MO), BTI also offers a high dividend yield that currently stands at 7.66%. Telecom services provider Vodafone (VOD) has a strong presence in many emerging markets.
