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LeadershipDonald Trump

Donald Trump Now Owns the 48th Largest Private Company In the U.S.

By
Kevin Lui
Kevin Lui
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By
Kevin Lui
Kevin Lui
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 16, 2016, 2:01 AM ET
President-Elect Donald Trump Holds Meetings At Trump Tower
NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 06: President-elect Donald Trump pauses to briefly speak to the media at Trump Tower on December 6, 2016 in New York City. Potential members of President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet have been meeting with him and his transition team of the last few weeks. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)Spencer Platt—Getty Images

The President-elect has another thing to celebrate. His company is now the 48th biggest private company in the country, reports CNNMoney, citing information from PrivCo.

The financial research firm released its latest rankings of the top 250 privately-held U.S. businesses Tuesday. The Trump Organization rose through the ranks, making the leap into the top 50 from 62nd place last year.

CNNMoney reports that, in 2015, the Trump Organization had a revenue of $9.5 billion, and that it currently employs a workforce of 22,450. That’s bigger than McKinsey, the global consultancy firm, or Bloomberg L.P., the finance and news company run by New York billionaire and ex-mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Unlike publicly-listed companies, privately-held firms—including the Trump Organization—are under no legal obligation to reveal as much information about themselves as their counterparts listed on stock exchanges must. Investors usually rely on information from the companies themselves, or firms like PrivCo, to track their latest movements.

Taking the top three spots in the PrivCo table are food and agriculture group Cargill, Koch Industries and insurer State Farm Mutual respectively.

Current federal laws restricting conflicts of interest do not apply to the presidency, but presidents are expected to adhere to the spirit of those laws. The news about the Trump Organization’s growth could cause even more unease over potential conflicts of interest that may arise when Trump steps into the Oval Office. Symbolizing them is the hotel just a few blocks down from the White House.

The situation has prompted what appear to be snarky tweets from the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, while President Barack Obama’s former ethics counsel called the unexplained presence of Trump’s daughter Ivanka at a meeting between the President-Elect and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe “something out of a tin-pot oligarchy.”

Trump announced through Twitter earlier this week that the he will leave Trump Organization’s management to sons Donald Jr. and Eric alongside other executives, and said that the company will not conduct new deals while he is in office.

But he also delayed from this week to January a scheduled public appearance on how he plans to step back from his business empire . (It has been suggested that, despite calling it a “blind trust,” handing over his vast business empire to his eldest children will not provide any meaningful barrier between the presidencies of the U.S. and the Trump Organization.)

For more on Donald Trump’s many conflicts of interest, watch this video:

The revelation of Trump’s role as executive producer on NBC’s The New Celebrity Apprentice, which will premiere on the Comcast-owned network just 18 days before Inauguration Day, is the latest example of potential conflation between Trump the president and Trump the businessman that’s provoked public outcry.

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune.

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By Kevin Lui
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