Biggest and Most Valuable Companies in India

Most of the retail investors struggle making money through stock market. We all know making money is not an easy job. So, we all often wonder how come people create and run massive companies. With this thought comes a curiosity of knowing which are the biggest companies out there! We recently published an article on world’s biggest companies and today we are going to tell you about the biggest companies in India. This evaluation is based on market capitalization. Market cap is probably the most accurate way to measure a company’s statistical worth. Let’s jump right in and find the answer!

1. Reliance Industries Ltd. (RELIANCE)

This multinational conglomerate is India’s largest private company, largest publicly traded company and largest company by revenue. Established in 1960s by Dhirubhai Ambani and currently headed by his son Mukesh Ambani, Reliance’s core business is petrochemical and natural gas based. The company owns the Jamnagar Refinery – the largest refinery in the world. But the companies massive businesses in retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles as well.

Reliance is responsible for about 5% of the Indian government’s total revenues from customs and excise duty. It is also the highest income tax payer in the private sector in India.

Estimated Market Cap of Reliance Industries Ltd: $204 billion

2. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

TCS is the second largest company in India. The company was founded in 1968 by Tata Sons Limited. TCS has a total of 50 subsidiary companies and operates in 149 locations in 46 countries. In June 2022, TCS employed more than 606,000 employees. That makes it the fourth largest employer in India (after Indian Railways, Indian Army and India Post)

Estimated Market Cap of TCS: $150 billion

3. HDFC Bank (HDFCBANK)

HDFC Bank was promoted by the Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) in 1994. Today the company provides products and services including wholesale banking, retail banking, vehicle loans, personal loans, and credit cards.

On 04 April 2022, HDFC Bank announced that it will merge with the parent company HDFC. The merger is pegged at $40 billion. The merged entity will be known as HDFC Bank and it will be 100% owned by the public shareholders.

Estimated Market Cap of HDFC Bank: $110 billion

4. Infosys (INFY)

In 1981, seven engineers, including the likes of N. R. Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani, founded Infosys with an initial capital of only $250. The company brought its initial public offer (IPO) in 1993. One share of book value Rs. 20 was offered at Rs. 95. There were not many takers and the IPO remained undersubscribed. However, Morgan Stanley picked 13% shares to make the IPO an overall success. Skeptics were delivered a blow when Infosys was listed at Rs. 145. And after that, everyone knows the Infy story! Today the company provides business consulting, information technology and outsourcing services.

Estimated Market Cap of Infosys: $80 billion

5. Hindustan Unilever (HINDUNILVR)

The Hindustan Unilever (aka HUL) was founded in 1933 as subsidiary of the British company Unilever. This FMCG company owns a number of brands that are household names in India. Sample some of the brands: Wheel, Lipton, Knorr, Cornetto, Horlicks, Kissan, Rin, Surf Excel, Vim, Domex, Close-up, Lakmé, Lifebuoy, Liril, Lux, Hamam, Dove, Pears, Pepsodent, Pond’s, Rexona, Sunsilk, Vaseline, Brooke Bond and the list goes on…

No wonder they say that you will find at least one product of Hindustan Unilever in every household of India!

Estimated Market Cap of Hindustan Unilever: $75 billion

6. ICICI Bank (ICICIBANK)

The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) was established on 5 January 1955. In 1990s the company transformed into what we now known as ICICI Bank. ICICI Bank was established by ICICI, as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1994 in Vadodara. Later the parent company was merged into ICICI Bank. This bank was the first bank in India to provide internet banking services which it started in 1998.

Today, ICICI Bank has more than 5,000 branches and more than 15,000 ATMs across India and has a presence in 17 countries.

Estimated Market Cap of ICICI Bank: $67 billion

7. Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC)

In 1956, the government of India nationalized 245 small insurance companies and merged them to form Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). There was no competition for LIC until the year 2000 when Indian government opened the insurance sector for private companies.

In May 2022, government launched an IPO offering 3.5% stake of LIC to the public. This stake was priced at 21,000 crore — thus valuing LIC at around 6,00,000 crore. When listed on NSE and BSE, the share however did not do well and price fell about 30%.

LIC reported 290 million policy holders as of 2019, a total life fund of Rs. 28.3 trillion and a total value of sold policies in the year 2018–19 of Rs. 21.4 million. The company also reported to have settled 26 million claims in 2018–19.

Estimated Market Cap of LIC: $56 billion

8. State Bank of India (SBIN)

According to Forbes, State Bank of India (aka SBI) is the 43rd largest bank in the world. It is a public sector bank and the largest bank in India with a 23% market share by assets and a 25% share of the total loan and deposits market. SBI was founded on 1 July 1955. Technically President of India is the promoter of SBI and owns 57.6% stake in the bank. Public owns only 0.6% and LIC owns 8.6% stakes.

Estimated Market Cap of SBI: $55 billion

9. Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTIARTL)

Bharti Airtel is a multinational telecommunications services company that operates in 18 countries. It is the second largest mobile network operator in India and the second largest mobile network operator in the world. The company was founded by Sunil Bharti Mittal. Airtel is credited with pioneering the business strategy of outsourcing all of its business operations except marketing, sales and finance. Before entry of Reliance Jio, Airtel was the market leader in the telecommunications sector.

Estimated Market Cap of Bharti Airtel: $52 billion

10. ITC Limited (ITC)

Established in 1910 as the Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited, the company is now known as ITC Limited — where ITC is not longer an acronym. ITC operates in industries such as cigarettes, FMCG, hotels, software, packaging, paperboards, specialty papers and agribusiness. It has a number of popular brands under its belt. To name a few, here is the list: Aashirvaad Atta, Sunfeast, Savlon, Charmis, Classmate, Bingo!, Yippee!, Gold Flake, Navy Cut etc.

There is no promoter in ITC as it is a public limited company. About 30% shares are owned by public, 16% shares are owned by LIC and mutual funds hold about 10% stake. It is considered among the stocks that every retail investor should have in their portfolio. ITC pays handsome dividend too.

Estimated Market Cap of ITC: $46 billion