Good morning. Volkswagen has topped the Fortune 500 Europe for a third straight year, even as the auto industry it leads gets squeezed by tariffs and Chinese competition. The automaker’s revenue still climbed 3.4%, to more than $363 billion, in the fourth edition of Fortune’s ranking of Europe’s largest companies by revenue. The combined revenues of the companies on the list hit a record high of $15.5 trillion this year. Profits rose 3% to just over $1 trillion, rebounding from a 5% decline in 2025.
Across the Fortune 500 Europe, margins have narrowed for two years running, falling to 6.5% from a high of 7.1% on the 2024 list—despite record revenue and profit growth. That’s consistent with stagflation pressures weighing on Europe’s corporate sector, Guido Cozzi, a macroeconomics professor at the University of St. Gallen, told Fortune’s Sam Birchall.
Three sectors generate over half of all revenue on the list: financials (24%), energy (20%), and motor vehicles and parts (10%). Finance remains Europe’s most dominant sector by revenue, profit, and headcount. A total of 105 finance companies earned a spot in the rankings, together generating 24% of the list’s total revenue, with Banco Santander (No. 9) and BNP Paribas (No. 10) in the top 10.
Financial companies also account for 40% of the list’s profit and employ 14% of its workforce. HSBC (No. 11) is the most profitable company on the list, recording $22 billion in profits for 2025 and one of only 25 companies to generate more than $10 billion in profits.
Europe’s finance-sector prominence stems from its biggest banks’ global reach and technical sophistication, Howard Yu, a professor at IMD Business School, told Birchall. Their decades-long presence in emerging markets gives them a depth few global rivals can match, he argues, calling it “a genuine strategic edge.”
Energy companies generate 14% of the list’s overall profit, and the sector ranks second to financials in employment. Another notable finding: BP is the only top-10 company with a woman CEO, Meg O’Neill. She’s also No.16 on this year’s Fortune Most Powerful Women (MPW) list. When O’Neill took over as CEO on April 1, she became the first woman to lead one of the five major oil companies.
BP is also the only one of its peers with women in both the CEO and CFO roles. Kate Thomson became BP’s finance chief in February 2024 after serving as interim CFO, making her the first woman to hold the role at the company. At Shell, No. 2 on the Fortune 500 Europe list, Sinead Gorman has served as CFO since April 2022. Gorman also earned a spot on this year’s MPW list.
Sheryl [email protected]
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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