Saudi Aramco Beats Apple to Become World’s Most Profitable Company

Saudi Aramco is by far the most profitable company in the world, according to financial data released by the state-run oil giant in Saudi Arabia.

According to the financials released, Saudi Aramco’s financial performance confirms that the oil company generated the highest profit in the world, having earned a net income of 111.1 billion US dollars in 2018.

Apple has long been known as the world’s most profitable company, but those days are over. Apple only made 59.5 billion US dollars in 2018 which was just over half of what Saudi Aramco made.

By comparison to other oil companies, Exxon Mobil (XOM), the largest US company made only 20.8 US billion dollars (18.7 percent of Saudi Aramco’s profits) while Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA), the largest publicly traded oil company, made 23.4 billion US dollars (21.1 percent of Saudi Aramco’s profits)

In fact, the Saudi company’s net profit equaled that of Apple (59.5 billion), Google parent company Alphabet (30.7 billion) and Exxon Mobil (20.8 billion) combined, according to Bloomberg.

Previously, Saudi Aramco’s accounts had remained mostly secret since the company was nationalized in the 1970s. Saudi Aramco is preparing to be publicly listed and therefore had to disclose company reports.

Saudi Aramco made its financial information available in a prospectus for a 10 billion US dollars bond sale, which the company plans to use to finance a nearly 70 billion US dollars stake in Saudi Arabia’s petrochemicals company.

Despite Aramco’s huge earnings, the company did not receive the top credit rating from agencies like Moody’s since its heavy dependence on the country’s economy could be an advantage for the company.

Moody’s issued an A1 rating for Aramco. Companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil have ratings of Aa2 and Aaa, which are higher than Aramco’s.