Fortune 500 Europe

In raw statistical terms, Europe’s economy trails those of the U.S. and China. But Europe does just as much as its larger counterparts to drive the global business agenda. The region’s biggest companies are planetary powerhouses in energy, banking, and the auto industry; its affluent consumers help determine what the world makes and buys; and its regulators are setting benchmarks for sustainability, data privacy, and antitrust practices that are reshaping business strategy worldwide. The inaugural edition of the Fortune 500 Europe, which ranks the biggest companies in Europe by revenue, aims to capture this diverse, dynamic environment. The list features businesses from 24 different countries, ranging in size from No. 500 (Germany’s MTU Aero Engines, with $5.6 billion in revenue) to No. 1, London-headquartered oil and gas giant Shell ($386.2 billion). Together, the 500 Europe companies brought in revenue of $13.94 trillion in their most recent fiscal year. Europe’s corporations, like its economy more broadly, have navigated dire challenges over the past year, including the Ukraine war and its ripple effects on energy prices, along with the volatility generated by high inflation and rising interest rates. For many companies, the weakening of the euro against the U.S. dollar also created difficult headwinds, as commodities, many of them priced in dollars, became proportionally more expensive. (The flagging euro also affected headline revenue and profit results on this list, since Fortune uses dollars as its baseline currency for rankings.) Not all the economic news was grim, of course: Many industries benefited from a boost in consumer demand as communities shed restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more about this year's list here.

Methodology

The Top Ten

Shell

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Energy

One of the world’s largest energy companies, London-headquartered multinational Shell is also Europe’s largest business. It had a bumper year in 2022, with revenue rising 41.6% to $386.2 billion on high oil and gas prices caused, in part, by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Profit more than doubled from the previous year, to $42.3 billion—a record for the business. Performance was particularly strong in liquified natural gas, a condensed form of natural gas that is easier to store and transport, after Russia cut off its Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines to Europe. Earnings for Shell’s wider integrated gas category rose 174% in 2022, to over half of the group’s total. Wael Sawan became CEO in January 2023, replacing Ben van Beurden, who stepped down after nine years. Of its $25 billion capital expenditure in 2022, Shell invested half into oil and gas, while allocating $3.5 billion to its renewables and energy solutions division, which includes gas trading alongside wind and solar. Shell has an official target to be a net zero business—including in its Scope 3 emissions, which cover the end use of its products—by 2050.

Volkswagen

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Motor Vehicles & Parts

If Volkswagen had expected a clear path out of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was to be disappointed. Last year brought a global semiconductor shortage, with the Ukraine war and persistent lockdowns in China adding to supply chain and logistics woes. Earnings fell 16.3% year on year to $15.2 billion in 2022, off $293.7 billion in revenue. The group’s flagship brand has set a mission to slash over $10 billion in annual costs by 2026, as it seeks to lift margins, which dipped slightly last year. Like others in the auto sector, Volkswagen is undergoing a rapid transition away from combustion engines. It is targeting 70% of European unit sales from electric vehicles by 2030, while two thirds of its $190 billion investment budget for 2023–2027 will be allocated to “electrification and digitalization”. Although turnover, operating profit and deliveries all rebounded in the first half of 2023, the group had to reduce its sales target for the year amid weak demand and tough competition in China.

Uniper

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Energy

Outside of its home market of Germany, utility company Uniper operates in over 40 countries, with particular strength in the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain. It recorded a nearly $20 billion loss in 2022, off $288.3 billion in revenue, amid energy market turmoil following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Uniper appointed Michael Lewis as its new CEO, effective June 2023. His predecessor, Klaus-Dieter Maubach, stepped down in February following a €50 billion ($53 billion) bailout by the German government that essentially nationalized the company. Under Lewis’s leadership, Uniper is rapidly increasing its green investments to €8 billion ($8.5 billion) by 2030, and intends to stop using coal to generate electricity by 2029. The decision comes as Uniper swung back to profit in the first half of 2023, and the German government looks to reduce its stake to 25% by 2028 under EU state aid rules. Uniper faced difficulty in securing natural gas after Russian supply lines were cut, forcing it to procure gas on global markets at a much higher price. Amid growing concerns over Europe’s energy security, Uniper secured a supply of liquified natural gas in September 2023 that it said will last until the “very late 2030s”.

TotalEnergies

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Energy

French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies has about 100,000 employees across operations in 130 countries. Revenue hit $263.3 billion in revenue in 2022, up 42.6% over the previous year, while net profit increased 28% to $20.5 billion amid high global fossil fuel prices. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Total was hit with $2.1 billion in windfall-profits taxes by the U.K. and the European Union, targeting energy companies that had made surging profits amid a global energy shortage. The company announced in March 2023 that it would sell 2,200 gas stations in Germany and the Netherlands for €3.1 billion ($3.3 billion) to Canadian company Couche-Tard Alimentation, known in the U.S. for its Circle K brand gas stations. In July 2023, Total signed a $27 billion deal with Iraq to develop oil, gas and solar capacity in the country. The French company has a 45% stake in the project, which will see $10 billion of investment over the next four years.

Glencore

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Energy

High and volatile commodity prices propelled the Swiss mining, energy and trading company to a record year in 2022. Revenue reached $256 billion, a 25.6% rise from the previous year, while profits jumped 248.2% to $17.3 billion. Over a third of Glencore’s revenue came from its own coal business, which hit strikingly high profit margins of 65% in 2022. In February 2023 the Swiss giant paid out $7.1 billion to its investors, including a $1.5 billion share buyback. It followed this with another $1 billion dividend and $1.2 billion buyback after publishing its half year results in August. This came despite a 50% fall in first half Ebitda compared to 2022, as the coal price normalized. Glencore has been in a months-long takeover attempt of Teck, a company considered the poster child of responsible mining. Teck repeatedly rejected Glencore’s offers. In June 2023, Glencore offered to buy Teck’s coal business, splitting it off from the rest of the latter company.

BP

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Energy

Like most oil and gas companies, the British energy giant recorded a revenue surge in 2022. On paper, however, it registered a net loss of $2.5 billion—reflecting the $25.5 billion write-down of its 20% stake in Russian oil producer Rosneft. The value of its holding collapsed after Western sanctions were imposed on Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. In September 2023 Bernard Looney resigned as CEO after a whistleblower alerted the board to historic relationships with colleagues. Interim CEO Murray Auchincloss has asserted that the company remains committed to Looney’s strategy to cut oil and gas production 40% by 2030 as it transitions to relatively cleaner forms of energy. In February 2023 BP agreed to the $1.3 billion acquisition of TravelCenters of America. The purchase is expected to add a network of over 280 full-service truck stops and travel centers across 44 U.S. states.

Stellantis

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Motor Vehicles & Parts

Stellantis, formed by the 2021 merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot S.A., has 14 auto brands in its portfolio, including Fiat and Jeep. The Netherlands-headquartered company took $188.9 billion in revenue last year, a nearly 7% increase from 2021. In recent months, Stellantis has been impacted by the United Auto Workers strike in the U.S., particularly in its distribution centers, which handle vehicle repairs. The auto company moved to lay off or furlough thousands of American employees in October, the same month it announced plans to start the production of some new car models in Italy following a deal with labor unions there. Stellantis aims for all European car sales and 50% of U.S. passenger car and light-duty truck sales to be electric by 2030, reaching carbon net zero by 2038. It plans to invest €30 billion ($31.8 billion) in electric vehicles by 2025, and is currently building a factory in Ontario for which it received extensive subsidies, as well in other locations in the U.S. and Europe.

Gazprom

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Energy

One of the largest energy companies in Europe and Russia’s biggest company by revenue, Gazprom operates gas pipeline systems and is involved in oil production, refining and energy generation. The majority state-owned business recorded a 21.9% rise in revenue to $167.8 billion, primarily due to increases in oil and gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and despite global sanctions following the war. The average gas price in 2022 was almost 3.5 times its 2021 average. Gazprom was the biggest single contributor to the Russian state budget in 2022, contributing over 5 trillion rubles (around $50 billion). The conflict has resulted in more and more countries trying to wean themselves off Russian gas imports, causing production to dip by 25% in the first half of 2023. Although Gazprom has suspended financial reporting, analysts suggest it made a net loss in its second quarter as exports to Europe collapsed.

Mercedes-Benz Group

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Motor Vehicles & Parts

Germany’s Mercedes-Benz Group sold 2.5 million vehicles last year and employed about 170,000 people. The company had a challenging 2022 with easing demand in Europe, and soaring energy and raw material costs. Profit declined 43.9% from 2021 following the spin-off of Daimler Trucks in December that year, though earnings before interest and tax were up more than a quarter in euro terms. Mercedes doubled electric vehicle deliveries in 2022, and wants them to account for half of auto sales by 2025, with a full transition to electric by 2030. However, CEO Ola Källenius has recently suggested the company is unlikely to meet the latter target. The group had strong results in the first half of 2023, with sales particularly buoyant for vans and top-end cars, and in Germany, which grew 23% against the same period last year. Mercedes-Benz became the first automotive company to receive government approval to run Level 3 autonomous driving in the U.S., announcing in January 2023 that the Drive Pilot feature in some of its vehicles met the technical specifications for self-certification in Nevada.

Electricité de France

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Energy

Commonly known as EDF, the French utilities company generates and supplies electricity across Europe, as well as in smaller global operations. It had a tough 2022, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forcing up gas and coal prices. Annual revenue rose 51.1% to $150.9 billion last year, but with regulatory price caps in France, the U.K. and elsewhere, and an unrelated decrease in nuclear electricity generation, this was not enough to offset spiraling costs. EDF’s $6 billion 2021 profit duly turned into an $18.9 billion loss in 2022. In 2023, French President Emmanuel Macron won court approval to nationalize EDF, ending its 18 years as a listed company. The French state already owned 84% of the business. A specialist in nuclear power, EDF is aiming to increase output in 2023 following reactor shutdowns for safety inspections in 2022. However, industrial unrest is making this more difficult, with strikes in its nuclear and hydroelectric businesses costing it €1 billion ($1.1 billion) from lost output in 2023.