Sydney is Australia’s business and finance capital. According to figures compiled by IBIS World, New South Wales is home to 48% of the top 500 enterprises in Australia by revenue. This figure includes many foreign-owned companies which use New South Wales as a base for expanding Asia Pacific operations.

Multinational corporations with a major presence in New South Wales span all industries and include IBM, Coca-Cola Amatil, ING, Nestle, Allianz, Vodafone, Nokia, SingTel, Pfizer, Sony and Norske Skog.

Sydney is the head office of 80% of domestic and foreign authorised deposit-taking banks in Australia. Fifty-seven out of 59 of these banks also have operations in the State. Major foreign banks in Sydney include Citigroup, UBS, Mizuho Corporate Bank, HSBC Bank and Deutsche Bank. Other global banks have established highly successful back office operations in Sydney. These foreign banks benefit from Sydney’s time zone advantage, spanning the close of business in the United States and the opening of the European trading day.

Of the top 500 companies, New South Wales is home to more than two-thirds of those in business and property services. The State has a diverse industry base, also hosting 90% of the companies in the motion picture, radio and television industry, and more than half of the nation’s top food and beverage manufacturers, health services companies and machinery and equipment manufacturers.