Location of Top 500 Companies in Australasia
Sydney is recognised both domestically and internationally as Australia's business and finance capital. According to figures compiled by IBIS World, New South Wales is home to 45% of the top 500 enterprises in Australasia 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 major industries and include IBM, Coca-Cola Amatil, ING, Nestle, Citibank, Vodafone, Nokia, Singtel, Pfizer, Sony and Norske Skog.
Sydney dominates Australia's finance sector with 53 of the 55 domestic and foreign authorised deposit-taking banks in Australia operating in Sydney. Major foreign banks in Sydney include Citigroup, UBS Australia, Mizuho Corporate Bank, HSBC Bank Australia 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.
Location of Top 500 Companies in Australasia by Revenue, 2008 (1,2)
| State/Territory |
Top 500
companies (number) |
Share of top 500 (%) |
Total revenue (3) (A$ billion) |
Share of revenue (%) |
| New South Wales |
223 |
44.6 |
592.4 |
43.5 |
| Victoria |
137 |
27.4 |
519.2 |
38.2 |
| Queensland |
45 |
9.0 |
88.0 |
6.5 |
| New Zealand |
31 |
6.2 |
61.6 |
4.5 |
| Western Australia |
31 |
6.2 |
54.7 |
4.0 |
| South Australia |
20 |
4.0 |
24.4 |
1.8 |
| Australian Capital Territory |
10 |
2.0 |
17.6 |
1.3 |
| Tasmania |
2 |
0.4 |
1.5 |
0.1 |
| PNG |
1 |
0.2 |
1.4 |
0.1 |
| Total |
500 |
100.0 |
1360.8 |
100.0 |
Footnotes:
1: Companies located in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
2: Includes private and public companies, foreign-owned companies, federal, state and local government bodies, listed and non-listed trusts, partnerships, co-operatives and associations. All foreign-owned companies are represented only by their Australian operations and subsidiaries in the Asia-Pacific region.
3: Revenue is sales plus other revenue.
Source: IBISWorld, April 2008.